EFFECTS OF REHABILITATION EXERCISE PROGRAMS ON ANXIETY AND DEPRESSIONIN CORONARY PATIENTS - A METAANALYSIS

In coronary patients, emotional disturbances in the sense of increased anxiety and depression have often been documented. Over the last year s, there has been a growing interest in the effects of exercise on emo tion. This meta-analysis, based on 13 to 15 studies on psychological e ffects of exercise programmes in coronary patients, showed a positive effect size both for anxiety (d(mean) = .3137) and depression (d(mean) = .4569). Nevertheless, these effect sizes have to be evaluated as le ss than medium by convention and in comparison to the effect size of p sychotherapeutic interventions. The effect sizes on anxiety or depress ion were not related to methodological characteristics of the included studies, like duration of the exercise programme, time chosen for fol low-up, publication year or use of control groups. But there was a sig nificantly negative correlation between sample size and effect size. T his might indicate a potential publication bias in the sense that sign ificant rather than non-significant results may be published on small subject samples. We concluded that exercise programmes should not be c onsidered the only treatment for emotional disturbances in coronary pa tients, but that they can be psychologically beneficial as an addition al treatment component.