PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AS A FORM OF SUPPORT FOR EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE TREATMENT OF DEPRESSIVE DISORDERS: A REVIEW OF CURRENT STUDIES

Depression is one of the most frequent mental diseases, and has a detrimental impact on numerous areas of human life. The development of depression may be fostered by various factors: genetic, biochemical, biological, mental and social. A significant role when treating depressive disorders is played by pharmacological, psychotherapeutic or cognitive and behavioral impacts. There is also evidence proving high effectiveness of properly dosed physical activity, both in the prevention and in the treatment of depressive disorders. The article is aimed at presenting the influence of regular physical activity on the improvement in emotional intelligence, in the treatment of depressive disorders. The paper is a narrative review and has been written based on the documentation analysis method, using the quantitative and the qualitative technique. The tool used was the Polish and the international scientific literature from databases, i.e. Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar and Europe PMC. The research material was constituted by groups of women and men, aged 9 to 80, varying in the numbers of group members. The research tools used were various psychological questionnaires, as well as magnetic resonance images. The study covered various forms of physical activity and the period of their use, while MRI was applied to assess morphological changes occurring in the brain as a result of undertaken physical activity. It was proven that regular physical training, regardless of its form, causes a reduction in stress and depression symptoms in all the respondents, notwithstanding their age and gender.