Exercise therapy for Stress-related mental disorder, a randomised controlled trial in primary care

Abstract

Backgroundto investigate whether a structured physical exercise programme (PEP) improves the recovery of general health in patients suffering from Stress-related Mental Disorder (SMD).MethodStudy design: randomised open trial in general practice. Patients from two regions in the Netherlands were included between September 2003 and December 2005, and followed up for 12 weeks.Intervention: the patients were referred to a physical therapist for instruction in and monitoring of physical exercise of an intermediate intensity. Following the Dutch Guidelines for Healthy Physical Exercise, the patients were instructed to exercise at least five times a week, for at least 30 minutes per day.Control group: usual care from the GPOutcomePrimary: improvement of general health after 6 weeks according to the 'general health' dimension of the Short-Form 36.Secondary: total days off work, percentage that resumed work after 6 and 12 weeks, change in distress score and change in remaining SF36 dimensions after 6 and 12 weeks.Resultsout of 102 randomised patients (mean age 43, 60 (59%) female), 70 (68%) completed the trial, of whom 31 were in the intervention group. After 6 weeks, the mean (SD) general health score was 54.6 (22.1) for the intervention group and 57.5 (19.2) for the controls. The corresponding effect size (Cohen's d with 95% confidence interval) from analysis of covariance was -0.06 (-0.41, 0.30) indicating no effect on general health. No significant effects of the intervention were detected for any secondary outcome parameter either.ConclusionNotwithstanding the relatively high drop-out rate, our results suggest that referral to a physical therapist for structured physical exercise is not likely to be very effective in improving recovery from SMD.Trial registryCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN15609105

Promoting graded exercise as a part of multimodal treatment in patients diagnosed with stress‐related exhaustion

“…Our findings indicate that exercise levels can be increased in patients suffering from stress‐related exhaustion disorder (Quartero et al . ). Stress‐related exhaustion and many other mental disorders are characterised by low physical and mental energy levels and low motivation as mentioned in the introduction.…”

“…Exposure to stress precedes many mental disorders (Quartero et al . ), and previous studies have shown that increased stress levels are associated with lower levels of self‐initiated exercise (Schnohr et al . ).…”

“…Exposure to stress precedes many mental disorders (Quartero et al 2011), and previous studies have shown that increased stress levels are associated with lower levels of self-initiated exercise (Schnohr et al 2005). Researchers have also argued that to be able to engage in moderate-tovigorous physical activity more self-regulatory energy is needed compared to low-effort activities (Sonnentag & Jelden 2009).…”