BACKGROUND Depressive and anxiety disorders have shown to be associated to premature or advanced biological aging and consequently to adversely impact somatic health. Treatments with antidepressant medication or running therapy are both found to be effective for many but not all patients with mood and anxiety disorders. These interventions may, however, work through different pathophysiological mechanisms and could differ in their impact on biological aging and somatic health. This study protocol describes the design of an unique intervention study that examines whether both treatments are similarly effective in reducing or reversing biological aging (primary outcome), psychiatric status, metabolic stress and neurobiological indicators (secondary outcomes). METHODS The MOod Treatment with Antidepressants or Running (MOTAR) study will recruit a total of 160 patients with a current major depressive and/or anxiety disorder in a mental health care setting. Patients will receive a 16-week treatment with either antidepressant medication or running therapy (3 times/week). Patients will undergo the treatment of their preference and a subsample will be randomized (1:1) to overcome preference bias. An additional no-disease-no-treatment group of 60 healthy controls without lifetime psychopathology, will be included as comparison group for primary and secondary outcomes at baseline. Assessments are done at week 0 for patients and controls, and at week 16 and week 52 for patients only, including written questionnaires, a psychiatric and medical examination, blood, urine and saliva collection and a cycle ergometer test, to gather information about biological aging (telomere length and telomerase activity), mental health (depression and anxiety disorder characteristics), general fitness, metabolic stress-related biomarkers (inflammation, metabolic syndrome, cortisol) and genetic determinants. In addition, neurobiological alterations in brain processes will be assessed using structural and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in a subsample of at least 25 patients per treatment arm and in all controls. DISCUSSION This intervention study aims to provide a better understanding of the impact of antidepressant medication and running therapy on biological aging, metabolic stress and neurobiological indicators in patients with depressive and anxiety disorders in order to guide a more personalized medicine treatment. TRIAL REGISTRATION Trialregister.nl Number of identification: NTR3460, May 2012.

中文翻译：

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抑郁症和焦虑症治疗对生物衰老和代谢应激的影响：抗抑郁药或跑步（MOTAR）研究的情绪疗法研究方案。

背景技术抑郁症和焦虑症已经显示出与生物衰老有关，因此对身体健康产生不利影响。发现抗抑郁药或跑步疗法对许多但并非所有患有情绪和焦虑症的患者都是有效的。但是，这些干预措施可能通过不同的病理生理机制起作用，并且对生物衰老和身体健康的影响可能有所不同。该研究方案描述了一项独特的干预研究的设计，该研究检查了两种疗法在减轻或逆转生物衰老（主要结局），精神状态，代谢应激和神经生物学指标（次要结局）方面是否同样有效。方法：抗抑郁或跑步情绪治疗（MOTAR）研究将在精神卫生保健机构中招募总共160例当前患有严重抑郁和/或焦虑症的患者。患者将接受抗抑郁药或连续治疗16周治疗（每周3次）。患者将接受其偏爱的治疗，子样本将被随机分配（1：1）以克服偏爱。包括60个无终生心理病理学的健康对照的无疾病无治疗组，将作为基线时主要和次要结局的比较组。对患者和对照组在第0周进行评估，仅对患者在第16周和第52周进行评估，包括书面问卷，精神病和体检，血液，收集尿液和唾液并进行循环测功计测试，以收集有关生物衰老（端粒长度和端粒酶活性），心理健康（抑郁和焦虑症特征），总体健康状况，与代谢应激相关的生物标志物（炎症，代谢综合征，皮质醇）的信息和遗传决定因素。此外，将使用结构和功能磁共振成像（MRI）评估每个治疗组至少25名患者的子样本以及所有对照中脑部过程中的神经生物学变化。讨论本干预研究旨在更好地了解抗抑郁药和跑步疗法对生物衰老的影响，抑郁和焦虑症患者的代谢应激和神经生物学指标，以指导更个性化的药物治疗。试用注册Trialregister.nl标识号：NTR3460，2012年5月。