The Impact of Aerobic Exercises on Depression and Serotonin in Females

This report presents a quasi-experimental study that investigated the effects of eight weeks of selected aerobic exercises on depression levels and plasma serotonin concentrations in female students aged 18-25. Twenty female students with moderate depression, identified using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group participated in a structured aerobic exercise program with 60-65% of maximum heart rate for three sessions per week. Results indicated a significant decrease in depression levels within the experimental group, while no significant difference was observed in plasma serotonin concentrations between the two groups. The study also found a significant correlation between plasma serotonin levels and depression scores in both groups. The research highlights the potential of aerobic exercise as an intervention for managing depression, although the study's findings on serotonin levels were not conclusive, and further research is needed. The study emphasizes the role of physical activity in mental health and underscores the need for considering exercise as part of a holistic approach to addressing depression in young women.

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Effects of Selected Aerobic Exercises on the Depression
and Concentrations of Plasma Serotonin in the Depressed
Female Students Aged 18 to 25
Article · January 2012
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The Journal of Applied Research • Vol.12, No. 1, 2012. 47
KEY WORDS: Aerobic exercises,
depression, serotonin, plasma
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study was to investigate
rates of depression and plasma serotonin
concentration in depressed female students
as affected by eight weeks aerobic exercises.
20 female students with moderate levels
of depression were selected by using Beck
Depression Inventory (BDI), and divided
into two experimental and control groups
randomly. At the beginning measurement of
plasma serotonin concentration was done of
the subjects, and then the experiment group
were affected by aerobic exercises (peri-
odic) with 65-60% of maximum heart rate
(HRmax) for eight weeks (three sessions per
week). Study variables were measured 96
hours after the last exercises session. Results
showed that levels of depression signifi-
cantly decreased in experimental group.
There was no significant difference between
the two groups in terms of plasma serotonin
concentration. Moreover significant relation-
ship between plasma serotonin and depres-
sion were observed in both groups.
InTRoduCTIon
Depression is the most common mood
disorders, which neurotransmitters have an
important role in its pathophysiology. This
disease has an impact on person perfor-
mance in the areas of emotional, motor, so-
cial and biological, and its severity is varies
from mild to severe (Dunn et al., 2002; Sa-
dock and Sadock, 2007). Recent studies by
the world health organization (WHO) in 12
countries showed that depression in women
is two-fold men. Students’ lifestyles have a
significant impact on increasing depression
(Rosenhan and Seligman, 1995; Blumenthal
et al., 1999; Sadock and Sadock, 2007).
The amount of tryptophan in the body is a
determinant factor in the rate of serotonin
production. Monoamine oxidas is the main
enzyme involved in serotonin metabolism,
and its major metabolite is 5-hydroxyin-
doleacetic acid (5-HIAA) (Maughan et al.,
1997). Free tryptophan can be into the brain
cells, and researchers have shown that about
10% of tryptophan is freely in plasma. Other
researchers have shown that tryptophan
entering to the brain cells and serotonin syn-
thesis is increased with prolonged aerobic
Effects of Selected Aerobic Exercises on
the Depression and Concentrations of
Plasma Serotonin in the Depressed Female
Students Aged 18 to 25
1Ahmad Hemat-Far
2Ahmad Shahsavari
3Sayed Roholla Mousavi
1Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran
2Department of Department of Physical Education,
Payame Noor University, PO BOX 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran
3Aligoudarz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Aligoudarz, Iran

Vol.12, No. 1 , 2012 •The Journal of Applied Research.48
exercise due to increasing the concentration
of free tryptophan in the plasma (Maughan
et al., 1997). Physical exercise can be used
as a treatment strategy to improve severe
depression due to increasing the secretion of
neurotransmitters (serotonin) (Sadock and
Sadock, 2007). Gerin et al. (2008) designed
one session aerobic exercise on a treadmill
for rats, and measured serotonin levels of
the spinal cord dorsal horn after exercise
immediately, and concluded that serotonin
increased (41%) significantly. Serotonin is
synthesized in the pineal gland in the brain’s
anterior border, cerebellum, hypothalamus
and other areas of the nervous system.
Secretion of serotonin hormone has a direct
relationship with natural light, so in the early
days is high and low at night (Sadock and
Sadock, 2007). Among depression patients,
attempted suicide is more frequent in the
people with low serotonin levels in the brain
stem and cerebrospinal fluid (Sadock and
Sadock, 2007). According to the British na-
tional health forum exercise increases brain
serotonin levels (Yeung, 1996). Exercise
significantly reduced symptoms of depres-
sion (Vickers et al., 2006). Steinberg et al.
(1998) divided 25 spinal paralysis patients
into two experimental and control groups,
and concluded that serotonin levels in
people with locomotor activity was more of
disabled. In this study the effect of thera-
peutic exercise on treating depression was
estimated as psychotherapy. Dey, (1994) in-
vestigated the effect of four weeks moderate
swimming in major depressive patients, and
stated that prolonged exercise leads to better
performance of serotonin receptors and im-
provement in behavior. Donath et al. (2010)
in the study measured serotonin levels on
two groups of women patients with major
depressive episode affected by aerobic train-
ing bike (70 to 85% HRmax), reported that
there was no significant difference between
the two groups in terms of serotonin levels.
Chaouloff, (1994) showed that 4 consecutive
days and each day one hour aerobic exercise
on a treadmill had not significant effect on
serotonin receptors and behavior of subjects.
Blumental et al. (1999) examined long-term
effects of exercise on 156 patients with
severe depression. On their study physical
therapy, treatment with sertraline and exer-
cise with sertraline were as treatments. They
report that, although the effect of medication
was more initially, but after 4 months there
was no difference between the three groups
in terms of reducing depression symptoms.
This study also reported that depression
rates and its recurrence on physical therapy
group were lower than other groups, with
review of these patients 6 months after treat-
ment. Considering the conflicting results of
present study and uncertainties including the
severity, type and duration of exercise, but
most researches confirmed the role of exer-
cise in physical and mental health. Moreover
use a variety of exercises (aerobic, anaero-
bic, resistance, etc.) has been proposed to
prevent and control depression. The objec-
tive of this investigation was determined the
interactive effects of eight weeks selected
aerobic exercises on depression levels and
the serotonin hormone secretion as a fac-
tor in controlling depression in depressed
female students.
MeThodology
This study was conducted as a quasi-exper-
imental. The statistical population was con-
sisted of 2700 female students at Aligoudarz
Payame Noor University (Iran) with age
range 18-25 years. 350 persons randomly
completed the Beck Depression Inventory
(BDI) among the statistical population. In
addition to depression inventory, a personal
information questionnaire including: age,
sex, weight, marital status, residence, sports
and medical records were completed by
subjects. After reviewing the questionnaires,
20 single women who were diagnosed with
major depression were selected with con-
sider of psychiatrists. The subjects had not
medical and sports history and lived in same
geographic location. After the justification
classes and necessary education for subjects,
they randomly divided into two experimen-
tal and control groups of 10 people. 96 hours
before the pre-test same diet were given to
the subjects, and they were asked to avoid of

The Journal of Applied Research • Vol.12, No. 1, 2012. 49
vigorous physical activity. After 12 hours of
fasting blood samples were taken from the
brachial vein in the immunology labora-
tory. Concentrations of the plasma serotonin
were measured by ELISA method after
samples freezing. Of the control group was
asked to pursue their normal life, and do not
have any physical activity during the next 8
weeks and consume conventional food. The
experimental group continued to exercise
with a codified exercise protocol. In this
study, many limitations, including accom-
modation, meals and calories, native, age,
weight, marital status, educational status and
sports and medical records of subjects were
controlled.
Measurement tools
Basic information about depression was ob-
tained by using Beck Depression Inventory
(BDI). Beck Depression Inventory is one of
the most reliable tools for diagnosing de-
pression. Also Beck Depression Inventory is
a short and easy tool to measure depression
in clinical trials. Beck inventory is includes
21 symptoms of depression with 94 ques-
tions in 21 question groups, and assessed 21
aspects of depression. Concentrations of the
plasma serotonin were measured by ELISA
method with a commercial kit of German
LDN Company.
Measurement of serotonin and depression
Blood sampling was twice (pretest and
posttest) of subjects during the study. The
first blood samples (pretest) were taken
one day before exercise period and fast-
ing. Second blood samples (posttest) were
taken 96 hours after the last exercise session
according to the terms and conditions of
pretest, until go away the acute effects of
last exercise session and the body of subject
returns to the initial state. To approximate
amount of serotonin secretion in humans is
10 mg per day, which in the early days is
high and low at night. On average serotonin
concentrations in men are 40-400 ng/ml of
blood and 80-450 ng/ml in women. Levels
of subjects’ depression were measured by
the Beck Depression Inventory simultane-
ously with the blood sampling (posttest).
Classify the severity of depression on this
scale is as table 1.
Exercise protocol
Subjects in an 8-week exercise program,
run three sessions a week for 40-60 min-
utes per session. The exercises in each
session were including: 10 min heating
with jogging, Stretching and flexibility and
three sets of moderate-intensity running in
six-minute with 65-60% of maximum heart
rate (HRmax). Three minutes relaxing was
between each running set and each week 1
minute had been added to the running time
of each set. Exercise duration was 40 min-
utes for the first and 60 minutes for the last
session. In each stage of exercise, researcher
should be controlled the exercise intensity
for each tester by the beat of heart and if in-
creasing or decreasing of exercise intensity
was needed, had to give suitable reaction to
the testers. In each session, the beat of heart
had been measured for each tester 3 times
and recorded their averages. 4 days after last
session, research variables were measured
and analyzed according to the conditions
and requirements of pretest.
Plasma serotonin (ng/mg)
Pretest Posttest Variance
(%)
T-value Significant level
Experiment group 160.6±92.1 251±113.1 +50.1 -1.9 0.08
Control group 165.5±101.8 184.5±111.6 +11.5 -0.72 0.49
T-independent value -0.11 1.12 - - -
Significant level 0.91 0.28 - - -
Table 1. Mean comparison of plasma serotonin in pretest and posttest by using t-test

Vol.12, No. 1 , 2012 •The Journal of Applied Research.50
Statistical methods
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K–S test) was
used for normal distribution of data. Levin
test was used for investigate the homogene-
ity and heterogeneity of variances. T-
independent test was used to determine the
difference between the mean of pretest and
posttest of control and experiment group.
T-dependent test was used to determine
the mean difference of variables between
groups. Level of significance was considered
p< 0.05. Pearson coefficient of correlation
was used for investigation of relationship
between depression and level of serotonin
plasma. Measuring factors was done by us-
ing SPSS version 16.
ReSulTS
Serotonin
According to research findings, shown in
Table 1 comparing averages of pretest and
posttest for testing group serotonin plasma
showed that level of serotonin plasma
increased than pretest. This increase was not
significant by noticing the calculated t (-1.9)
and level of significance (0.08). Level of
plasma serotonin increased 11.5% in control
group that was not significant.
Depression
According to the information of Table 2, in-
vestigating of pretest and posttest means for
experiment group depression showed that
depression is decreased 33.6% than pretest;
this decreasing is significant, by noticing the
calculated t (4.23) and level of significance
(0.002). It could be resulted that 8 week
selected aerobic exercises had effects on
decreasing of subjects’ depression. Level of
subjects’ depression for control group had
4.2 decreasing that was not significant.
Correlation between serotonin and De-
pression
The relationship between plasma serotonin
and rates of depression by using Pearson
coefficient of correlation by noticing amount
of correlation -0.52 and level of significance
0.02 showed that there was significant rela-
tionship between plasma serotonin and rates
of depression for women subjects (Table 3).
Table 3. Results of plasma serotonin levels
and Depression by using Pearson correlation
test
Discussion and Conclusion
The majority of researches about level of
serotonin hormone and depression show
that exercises are caused increasing sero-
tonin hormone and decreasing depression.
Results of this research show that selected
aerobic exercises don’t influence on level
of plasma serotonin for women subjects.
According to Table 1, means of serotonin
hormone for pretest of experiment group is
160.6 ng/ml blood and for posttest is 240
ng/ml; but this difference was not signifi-
cant statistically. Donath et al. (2010) didn’t
find any enhancement in level of subjects’
Rates of depression
Pretest Posttest Variance (%) T-value Significant
level
Experiment group 25±5.3 16.6±6.9 -33.6 4.23 0.002
Control group 23.8±4.7 22.8±4.9 -4.2 0.5 0.63
T-independent value 0.54 -2.3 - - -
Significant level 0.6 0.03 - - -
Table 2. Mean comparison of rates of depression in pretest and posttest by using t-test
Correlation
coefficient
Significant
level
Serotonin
depression
-0.52 0.02
Table 3. Results of plasma serotonin levels
and Depression by using Pearson correla-
tion test

The Journal of Applied Research • Vol.12, No. 1, 2012. 51
serotonin after a period of aerobic exercises.
Although, in this research, level of serotonin
is increased 50.1% and its protocol was done
with less intensity. It seems that there was a
relationship between production of lactate
and serotonin concentration. According to
some researchers strong exercises increases
blood acidity and disturbing mechanism of
serotonin synthesis, but in long time aerobic
sports causes free tryptophan density in
plasma and entering tryptophan into brain
cells and serotonin synthesis and spread-
ing it in blood circulation (Maughan et al.,
1997; Babyak et al., 2000; Langfort et al.,
2006). Results of this research are similar
to findings of Chaouloff, (1994). Although
Chaouloff, (1994) investigated short time
aerobic exercises in order to improve recep-
tor of serotonin, his exercise protocol was
4 days and 1 hour in each day with average
speed on treadmill. In contrast, Steinberg et
al. (1998) and Peirce, (1999) reported that
level of serotonin for depressed subjects
who had regular aerobic exercises, was more
than active persons. To explain this contrast,
limitations can be mentioned such as short
time of exercise program (4 weeks aerobic
exercises), intensity and kind of exercise
(watery aerobic exercise in contrast with
ground aerobic exercise) and kind of sam-
pling. Alberghina et al. 2010 investigated
one session strong exercise on concentra-
tions of plasma serotonin on Italian horses
and sampling blood was done as soon as ex-
ercise was finished and also 30 minutes after
it. Results showed that there is significant
enhancement for level of serotonin in both
stage of posttest (after exercise and 30 min-
utes after it). It seems that time of serotonin
measuring in posttest stage is an important
factor. Majority of research shows that re-
searchers were looking for effect of sport on
serotonin hormone and for this reason; they
had done sampling as soon as exercise was
finished. This research tries to investigating
long time effects of sports on serotonin hor-
mone density and because of this, changes
of serotonin in posttest stage was noticed 96
hours after last exercise session, till strong
impacts of last exercise session almost
disappear and subjects bodies returns to first
state. Other finding of this research was sig-
nificant effect of selected aerobic exercises
on decreasing depression of subjects. Labotz
et al. (2006) compared behavior of athletic
and non athletic students and after analyzing
findings mentioned to the negative relation-
ship between sport exercises and depres-
sion. Results of this research are similar to
Grieist et al. (1970), McCann et al. (1984),
McCartney, (2000), and Dunn et al. (2002).
On the other hand, some of researchers
reported that aerobic exercises influence on
strong depression and different amount of
exercise can be used to treatment of depres-
sion. These researches notice that selection
of aerobic exercise should be done exactly,
unless person doesn’t do the exercise or
because of strong physical or mental stress,
quit it (Dimeo et al., 2001; Payne, 2001;
Dunn et al., 2002). Some researchers had
reported positive effect of exercise protocol
on personality of depressed patients with
70-80% maximum heart beat (Bartholomew
et al., 2005). Rethorst et al. (2010) compared
effect of sport and anti-depression’s drugs
on depressed persons. They considered
depressed 18-23 year old patients in interval
exercises for 5 weeks. Results showed that
effect of sport on decreasing depression is
similar to anti-depression drugs. To explain
constructing the serotonin plasma and con-
trolling depression, thinking more about this
hormone and function of neurotransmitters
in nerve system is needed. In this research
we find significant relationship between
plasma serotonin and depression of subjects.
Findings of this study are similar to findings
of study in London academy of health which
expresses aerobic sports cure depression
by increasing level of brain serotonin. Also
this research is similar to findings of Peirce,
(1999) and Dey, (1994). they showed that
long time sports improve serotonin and its
receptors and decreasing level of depression.
Results of this research were not similar to
Chaouloff, (1994) findings. Reason of this
contrast probably is related to factors such
as type and method of exercises, first state
of testers, age, geographical, educational,

Vol.12, No. 1 , 2012 •The Journal of Applied Research.52
and financial state of subjects. Buchman
et al. (1991) studied relationship between
exercise and depression and didn’t find any
relationship. Absolutely curing depression
by sport needs more study and to do such a
cure needs experts in psychology and sport
to know all aspects of both fields and use a
mixture of them scientifically. Totally results
of this study showed aerobic exercises
with intensity 60-65% maximum heart rate
(HRmax) can be used as a strategy to cure
depressed students and these exercises with
specific and suitable volume and intensity
decrease level of depression and make their
behavior natural that this effect probably is
independent from plasma serotonin concen-
tration.
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