Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) have repeatedly been described to exhibit both a humoral as well as a cellular pro-inflammatory state. Acute exercise, representing physical stress, can further aggravate such an immune dysbalance. In the light of recommended exercise programmes for depressed patients, we aimed to investigate the inflammatory response to exercise in patients with MDD. Blood cells counts and concentrations of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1ss and IL-6 as well as the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were obtained before and after a single maximum exercise test in 15 patients suffering from MDD and 15 controls applying a stepwise exhaustion protocol. Patients showed increased white cell counts before and after exercise. While starting from different baseline levels, however, the relative increase in both humoral and cellular inflammatory parameters did not differ between groups. The results from this study suggest that physical training programmes for MDD patients do not bear a dramatically increased risk for acute pro-inflammatory exacerbations. Thus, continuous training programmes that have been shown to reduce the pro-inflammatory state in these patients can be recommended.
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