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In an occasional column, Journal Watch Psychiatry editors briefly comment on review articles. These annotations were written by Deborah Cowley, MD, Barbara Geller, MD, Peter Roy-Byrne, MD, and Joel Yager, MD.
Exercise programs ameliorate anxiety. Exercise is now well known to improve depression symptoms in both community and patient samples, but its effect on anxiety, which might be worsened by the autonomic effects of exercise, is less clear. This excellent review1 examines 40 studies of exercise in sedentary adults with various chronic illnesses. Exercise training had a small to moderate effect, with short (≤12 weeks) programs and exercise durations of more than 30 minutes most effective; effects were similar across illnesses. A study limi…