"Can a Run Really Match Therapy or Antidepressants?"

For anyone in the doldrumsin the doldrums: in low spirits; feeling depressed and unmotivated — 情绪低落, few prescriptionsprescription: a written instruction from a medical practitioner authorising a patient to obtain a specified medicine — 处方；药方 feel more tiresome than the briskbrisk: Stimulating or invigorating — 清爽的；提神的 instruction to exercise more, yet two large analyses published in early 2026 give that familiar advice unexpected scientific weight. Both papers suggest that regular physical activity reduces the symptoms of depression and anxiety by roughly as much as a course of therapy or a prescriptionprescription: a written instruction from a medical practitioner authorising a patient to obtain a specified medicine — 处方；药方 of antidepressantsantidepressant: An agent that prevents or counteracts depression — 抗抑郁药, a striking parityparity: Equality; comparability of strength or intensity — 对等；同等地位 that has spread quickly through the health press. The experts who produced the work, however, have reservations of their own about how far that comparison can really be pushed.

The first study, published in January by researchers based across Britain and Ireland, took the form of a Cochrane reviewCochrane review: a rigorous, internationally trusted type of medical evidence review produced by the Cochrane Collaboration — Cochrane综述（医学循证审查）, a well-regarded metameta: Self-referential; structured analogously, but at a higher level — 元的-analysis of health-care research that pooled the results of 69 randomisedrandomise: To arrange randomly; to make random — 随机化；随机分配 controlled trialsrandomised controlled trials: studies in which participants are randomly assigned to a treatment or control group; the highest-quality medical evidence — 随机对照试验 measuring exercise's effect on depression. The second, appearing the following month in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, was a so-called meta-meta-analysis that drew on more than 1,000 trials involving close to 80,000 participants in total. Each team concluded, in the cautiouscautious: Careful to avoid potential problems or dangers; characterised by prudence and wariness. — 谨慎的；小心翼翼的 phrasingphrasing: The way a statement is put together, particularly in matters of style and word choice — 措辞；表达方式 typical of the genre, that exercise reduces depressivedepressive: Relating to or characteristic of depression — 抑郁的（症状） and anxious symptoms by roughly as much as the conventional treatments doctors usually prescribeprescribe: to recommend and authorise the use of a medicine or treatment, or to lay down a rule — 开处方；规定.

There are, inevitably, important caveatscaveat: A warning — 警告. Meta-analyses can only be as reliable as the trials they pool, and exercise studies are particularly proneprone: Predisposed, liable, inclined — 易于 to being skewedskew: To bias or distort in a particular direction — 使（结果）偏倚；扭曲 by the way they have to be designed. Participants cannot be blinded, since they obviously know whether or not they are doing kettlebell swingskettlebell swings: a specific gym exercise where a weighted iron ball is swung between the legs and up to chest height — 壶铃摆荡（一种健身动作）, which makes their self-reported mood especially vulnerablevulnerable: susceptible to physical or emotional harm; exposed to danger or attack — 脆弱的；易受伤害的；易受攻击的 to whatever favourablefavourable: Expressing approval or support; advantageous or beneficial. — 有利的；赞成的；良好的 expectations they happen to bring into the study. For this and related reasons, the Cochrane authors judged every trial they included to carry a high riskhigh risk: in research methodology, a formal rating meaning the study's results may be substantially distorted — 高风险（研究方法学评级） of bias.

The meta-meta-analysis introduces a second, subtler problem. It did not test exercise against other interventionsintervention: the action of becoming involved in a situation in order to improve or change it — 干预；介入 directly; instead, its exercise results were stacked against the outcomes of separate trials of therapy and antidepressants. Drug trials, unlike exercise trials, are typically well blinded and produce strong placebo effectsplacebo effects: improvements that happen because patients believe they are being treated, not because the treatment itself works — 安慰剂效应, which makes it harder for them to register a clean advantage over the comparison condition. "I don't think it's a fair comparison," says Jonathan Roiser, a professor of neuroscience at University College London.

For all that, the practical signal is reasonably consistent. Aerobic workoutsworkout: a session of vigorous physical exercise or training — 锻炼；健身训练 such as running, walking and cycling appear to be beneficial across the boardacross the board: applying to everyone or in every case; without exception — 普遍地；全面地, while group-based or supervised sessions tend to outperform solitary effort when depression is the target, with benefits that accrueaccrue: To increase, to rise — 增加；上升 gradually over several months of regular practice. For anxiety, by contrast, lower-intensityintensity: the degree or extent to which something is strong, concentrated, or forceful — 强度；烈度 activity seems to deliver the best results.

Why exercise works on mood is harder to pin down. The popular notion that it generates a chemical high by triggering a release of endorphins, a class of opioidopioid: Any of the natural substances, such as an endorphin, released in the body in response to pain — 内源性类阿片物质 produced by the body itself, has surprisingly little scientific support. A 2021 study found that blocking runners' opioid receptorsreceptor: A protein on a cell wall that binds with specific molecules so that they can be absorbed into the cell in order to control certain functions — 细胞受体蛋白opioid receptors: sites on brain cells that endorphins and opioid drugs attach to, producing pain relief or pleasure — 阿片受体 reduced neither the euphoriaeuphoria: An excited state of joy; a feeling of intense happiness — 极度兴奋 they reported after a session nor the subsequent drop in anxiety. Researchers now suspect that endocannabinoids, chemicals produced by the body and brain that bindbind: To tie or fasten tightly, or to impose a legal or moral obligation on someone. — 束缚；约束；捆绑；使具有约束力 to the same receptors as the active moleculesactive molecules: the chemical parts of a substance that actually produce its effect — 活性分子 in cannabis, are likelier to be responsible for these short-term boosts.

Several other pathwayspathway: a route or course of action, especially one leading to a particular outcome or destination — 途径；路径 also seem to be engaged. Exercise appears to dampen inflammation, improve brain plasticitybrain plasticity: the brain's ability to change its structure and connections in response to experience — 脑可塑性, and increase the transmissiontransmission: the act of sending or passing something from one place or person to another — 传输；传播；传送 of dopaminedopamine: A neurotransmitter associated with movement, attention, learning, and the brain’s pleasure and reward system — 多巴胺, the neurotransmitterneurotransmitter: [Animal Physiology] Any substance, such as acetylcholine or dopamine, responsible for sending nerve signals across a synapse between two neurons — 神经递质 that the brain uses to weigh effort against reward; lifting that transmission may help reversereverse: To change totally; to alter to the opposite — 彻底逆转 the loss of motivation that defines clinicalclinical: Relating to the observation and treatment of patients; coldly efficient and detached, without warmth or emotion. — 临床的；冷静客观的；冷淡的 depression. Psychological benefits accrue on top: regular activity offers a tangible sense of achievement, agency and, in time, masterymastery: The act or process of mastering; the state of having mastered; expertise — 精通；娴熟, all of which are known to lift mood. Plenty of reasons, in short, to work up a sweatwork up a sweat: to exercise vigorously enough to start sweating — 出一身汗（指做运动）.