Effects of Barefoot Running vs. in Shoes on Physiology and Mood
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01733381. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
An Examination of the Differential Effects of Running Minimally Shod vs. in Shoes on Physiology and Emotional States Relevant to Major Depression.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Aerobic exercise impacts bodily processes implicated in the pathophysiology of major depression. Consistent with these effects, aerobic exercise in general, and running in particular, has been repeatedly shown to have both immediate mood elevating and longer-term antidepressant effects. To the investigators' knowledge, all studies of running as a therapeutic intervention for mood have had subjects run in standard running shoes, despite increasing evidence that running barefoot or in shoes with minimal effect on foot strike (i.e. "minimally shod") leads to marked changes in how people run in ways that might have physiological effects of relevance to health. Thus, nothing is currently known about differences in effects on depression-relevant physiological or emotional functioning between running either barefoot or minimally-shod vs. running in standard running shoes (hereafter called "shoed). The current pilot study is designed to begin addressing these issues by examining effects of minimally shod vs. shoed running on non-invasive measures of autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning and mood state.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01733381
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 22 participants
Conditions and interventions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Oct 31, 2012
- Primary completion
- Jan 31, 2014
- Completion
- Jan 31, 2014
- Last update posted
- Jul 30, 2025
2012 – 2014
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Human Evolutionary Biomechanics Laboratory in the Park Student Union, Room 236 at the University of Arizona | Tucson | Arizona | 85724 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01733381, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Jul 30, 2025 · Synced Sep 7, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01733381 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.