Effectiveness of a Structured Physical Rehabilitation Program for Chinese Patients With Depressive Disorders

"The intervention group will participate in a Physical Rehabilitation Program which includes a 60-minute training session at a frequency of 3 times a week over a total of 12-week duration. The training session consists of 45 minutes of warm-up stretching and circuit training. This includes 3 stations of aerobic exercises for physical work up of different body parts, and 3 stations of strengthening exercises of major muscles groups at 3 sets of 10 repetitions. The final 15-minute training session will be the cooling down exercise with emphasis on stress management incorporating mindful breathing, stretching and body awareness exercise."

The subjects of the control group will be asked to maintain their usual activities while awaiting for the physical rehabilitation program at the 12-week waiting time. They will be allowed to receive any other usual medical services including social services and psychotherapy but not physiotherapy services. At the end of the 3rd month, the control group will be recruited into the Physical Rehabilitation Program. Patients in the control group will then join in as the intervention group and follow the intervention and assessment protocol.