BACKGROUND: Heart failure related depression is recently increased worldwide. Heart failure (HF) disease is identified as a critical cause of increasing morbidity, hospital readmission, and mortality. The most important purpose of treatment of HF disease is to relief disease problems, improve functional performance, and achieve better quality of life. OBJECTIVES: This study was proposed to evaluate the effects of low to moderate-intensity exercise program versus moderate-intensity continuous exercise program on the level of depressive disorder in heart failure patients. STUDY DESIGN: 12-week randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Sixty nine HF patients with mild to moderate level of depression and ejection fraction < 40% were examined before and after 12-week intervention. Their age was ranged from 40 to 60 years. Patients were randomly classified into 3 groups. Group I (n = 23) received low to moderate intensity exercise program (LMIEP), group II (n = 23) received moderate-intensity exercise program (MICEP), and group III (n = 23) did not receive any exercise program (Non-exercised group). All patients were instructed to conduct home-based exercise with their pharmacological therapy. The level of depression was evaluated before and after 12 weeks of the intervention program. RESULTS: The 3 study groups were associated with significant decrease of depression level (p < 0.05). Significant differences were exhibited between the 3 groups in favor to both exercise programs (p < 0.05) with non-significant differences between the 2 exercise programs (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Both exercise programs had positive effects in reducing the severity of depression in HF patients. Low to moderate and moderate-intensity exercise programs should be proposed for depression illness specially patients with heart failure.

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