Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Providence, RI USA; Butler Hospital, Behavioral Medicine and Addictions Research, Providence, RI USA.
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Department of Psychology, New Brunswick, NJ USA.
J Affect Disord. 2019 Feb 15;245:991-997. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.11.074. Epub 2018 Nov 14.
The acute effects of aerobic exercise on improved mood and anxiety reduction have been demonstrated across clinical and nonclinical populations. Limited work has evaluated the acute effects of aerobic exercise on negative affect, obsessions, and compulsions in patients with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Fifty-five patients (64% female) with treatment-resistant OCD were randomized to either 12 weeks of aerobic exercise (AE) or health education contact (HEC) control. Participants rated negative affect (i.e., mood and anxiety), obsessions and compulsions before and after each weekly AE or HEC session. Multilevel models were constructed to evaluate the effect of intervention condition, treatment week (time), and their interaction in terms of acute change in affect, obsession, and compulsions.
Results reflected a main effect of condition, such that AE resulted in significantly larger increases in positive mood, and reductions in anxiety and compulsions, as compared to HEC. There was also a main effect of time in predicting acute anxiety reduction, such that linear reductions in anxiety over the course of treatment were observed. No significant effects were observed for acute changes in obsessions.
The sample was small and was limited in demographic heterogeneity. Bouts of aerobic exercise were not standardized in terms of duration and mode, which could impact affective response to exercise, and acute affective OCD effects were exclusively self-reported.
The current findings may help elucidate potential mechanisms of action of exercise on OCD outcomes. In addition, these results point toward the potential of designing exercise interventions that can teach patients to utilize individual bouts of physical activity, "in-the-moment" to improve mood and reduce anxiety and compulsions.
有氧运动对改善情绪和减轻焦虑的急性影响已在临床和非临床人群中得到证实。有限的工作评估了有氧运动对强迫症（OCD）患者的负性情绪、强迫观念和强迫行为的急性影响。
55 名（64%为女性）治疗抵抗的 OCD 患者被随机分为有氧运动（AE）组或健康教育接触（HEC）对照组 12 周。参与者在每次 AE 或 HEC 治疗前后对负性情绪（即情绪和焦虑）、强迫观念和强迫行为进行评分。构建多层次模型，以评估干预条件、治疗周（时间）及其交互作用对情绪、强迫观念和强迫行为的急性变化的影响。
结果反映了条件的主要影响，即 AE 导致积极情绪显著增加，焦虑和强迫行为显著减少，与 HEC 相比。时间对预测急性焦虑减轻也有主要影响，即在治疗过程中观察到焦虑的线性降低。急性强迫观念变化没有观察到显著影响。
样本量小，在人口统计学上存在异质性。有氧运动的时间和模式没有标准化，这可能会影响对运动的情绪反应，而急性情绪 OCD 效应仅通过自我报告。
目前的研究结果可能有助于阐明运动对 OCD 结果的潜在作用机制。此外，这些结果表明，可以设计运动干预措施，教会患者利用单次身体活动，“此时此刻”来改善情绪和减轻焦虑和强迫行为。
