Exercise as medicine for depressive symptoms? A systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression.

"Competing interests: AH is founder and CEO of the Centre for Emotional Health Germany GmbH supported by the Potsdam Transfer Centre from the University of Potsdam. BS has an NIHR Advanced fellowship (NIHR-301206, 2021–2026) and is coinvestigator on an NIHR program grant: Supporting Physical and Activity through Co-production in people with Severe Mental Illness (SPACES). BS is on the Editorial board of Mental Health and Physical Activity and The Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry. BS has received honorarium from a coedited book on exercise and mental illness and advisory work from ASICS for unrelated work. MK is on the Editorial boards for Behavior Therapy (Associate Editor), Stress and Health (Sections Editor), Psychological Bulletin, and Behaviour Research and Therapy. JF is supported by a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship (MR/T021780/1) and has received honoraria / consultancy fees from Atheneum, Informa, Gillian Kenny Associates, Big Health, Wood For Trees, Nutritional Medicine Institute, Angelini, ParachuteBH, Richmond Foundation and Nirakara, independent of this work. FS is on the Editorial board of Mental Health and Physical Activity, The Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry and Journal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria. FS has received honorarium from a co-edited book on lifestyle and mental illness. The other authors declare no funding, editorial or potential competing interests."

"Funding: The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors."

"This systematic review and meta-analysis was registered in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) with the protocol number CRD42020210651. The PRISMA Statement was followed in its updated version additionally considering the PERSiST guidance (implementing PRISMA in Exercise, Rehabilitation, Sport medicine and SporTs science). Data sources: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, SPORTDiscus, PsycINFO, Scopus and Web of Science were searched without language restrictions from inception to 13 September2022 (PROSPERO registration no CRD42020210651)."