RESISTance Exercise for Depression Trial

Frontline treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), including psycho- and pharmacotherapy, have limited effectiveness, and there is a critical need to develop and test novel, efficacious treatments for MDD and simultaneously work to optimize its benefits. Resistance exercise training (RET) is a promising but understudied treatment approach. This trial will investigate the efficacy of RET for treatment of MDD in a 1:1 randomized controlled trial (n=200) of 16 weeks of high vs low progressive RET in adults with DSM-5 diagnosed MDD. Further, this project will explore potential mechanisms leading to symptom improvement, including changes in cerebrovascular function (i.e., cerebral blood velocity and pulsatility) and self-efficacy, while also using supervised machine learning tools to predict depression changes, cerebrovascular changes, and participant adherence. Upon completion, this study will build towards identifying and translating mechanistically driven behavioral treatments to reduce the global burden of mental illness.