Exercise may provide rapid relief from anxiety for individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder, underscoring the need for further investigation into immediate-term effects, such as pre-post exercise.
Exercise may lower anxiety among individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD), possibly providing a beneficial change to emotional state within hours. These study findings were published in Psychiatry Research
Researchers conducted an observational study to evaluate the association between exercise and the immediate subsequent emotional state (within hours) among individuals with a history of mood disorders
Using deidentified data from the National Institute of Mental Health Family Study of Affective Spectrum Disorders (NIMHFS), researchers selected eligible participants and euthymic participants as a control group. Researchers used theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). There were also subset analyses for participants aged under 45 years vs those aged at least 45 years, as well as predictor modeling to test associations of individual mood disorder classes; BD vs anxiety without mood, BD vs MDD, and BD vs no disorder.
More work is needed in young adolescents, both to directly study exercise-emotion dynamics in younger persons experiencing or at risk for mood disorders and to understand and address potential structural issues[…]
Across 14 consecutive days, participants used a mobile device, pre-programmed to administer 4 electronic assessments per day, approximately once every 4 waking hours. Participants responded to questions to assess exposure to exercising at each timepoint on a Likert-type scale (1-7) indicating present emotional level. These self-reported emotional states included sad, anxious, activated, energetic (1=very happy/relaxed/tired/inactive; 7=very sad/very anxious/very active/energetic)
A total of 459 participants (mean age, 41.4 years; 63% girls/women) were included for final analysis. The study participants were then separated into 4 groups: those with BD 1 and 2 (n=110), with MDD (n=157), with anxiety without mood disorders (n=96), and no psychiatric disorder (n=96). Overall, 267/459 participants had major mood disorder and 192/459 had no threshold-level mood disorder
The main study outcome was momentary emotional state at each timepoint.
Of the study participants, 66.7% had comorbid anxiety disorder, among whom 78.7% had major mood disorder and 50% no threshold-level mood disorder. Additional comorbidities were substance use disorder (SUD; n=84) and eating disorder (n=33).
Exercise was associated with a strong reduction in subsequent anxiety among those with BD or MDD (-1.706; 95% credible interval [CrI], -2.296 to -1.048) overall, and by sex (-1.623; 95% CrI, -2.728 to -0.709 boys/men; -0.829; 95% CrI, -1.822 to -0.076 girls/women). Exercise was not associated with subsequent changes in energetic, activated, or sad feelings.
Stratifying by age suggested that for those aged under 45 years vs aged at least 45 years, exercise associated with subsequently greater anxiety (+2.159; 95% CrI, 0.961 to 3.585) and greater sadness (+1.596; 95% CrI, 0.573 to 2.805)
Participants with BD vs individuals with MDD, anxiety without mood, or no disorder did not differ significantly in exercise-emotion dynamics, although the researchers noted individual within-person level variation in BD subtypes
Study limitations include failure to question activities/feelings between assessment timepoints, no inclusion of acute emotional episodes, self-report bias, and exercise characterized categorically without data on intensity or duration, which may influence the level of emotional response
“More work is needed in young adolescents, both to directly study exercise-emotion dynamics in younger persons experiencing or at risk for mood disorders and to understand and address potential structural issues[…],” the study authors concluded.
Stapp EK, Husky MM, Cui L, Merikangas KR.The dynamic influence of exercise on emotional state among people with a history of mood disorder.Psychiatry Res. 2026;364:117319. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2026.117319
