Psychobiology Research Laboratory, Mazor Mental Health Center, Akko, Israel.
Department of Biotechnology Engineering, ORT Braude College, Karmiel, Israel.
J Psychiatr Res. 2019 Jun;113:10-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.03.002. Epub 2019 Mar 8.
The positive effect of exercise on human health and the relationship between physical activity, health, and wellbeing are well studied and extensively documented in the literature. However, considerably less attention is devoted to the impact of exercise on mental health and wellbeing for people experiencing a mental illness, in general, and in particular for inpatients in the mental health care system. Here, we determine the clinical feasibility and effects of short-term (up to three months) vs long-term (up to six months) group-based exercise program for inpatients with chronic mental health. Changes in psychiatric symptoms, well-being, empathy, and physiological fitness factor (e.g., fasting blood glucose, lipid profile, hemoglobin A1C, and BMI) were monitored before, during and following the physical exercise program. Here, we demonstrated that long-term physical activity improved negative symptoms, but not positive symptoms, while improvement in the severity of the illness as measured by the BPRS questionnaire was found to be independent of the training time. We additionally showed that the empathic ability of patients who exercised for more than three months was significantly improved as compared to the other experimental groups. No significant differences were found in wellbeing, mood, satisfaction, and functioning between exercise groups and the control group. Furthermore, physical activity did not improve any of the physiological parameters that were measured in this study. Together, these data indicate that exercise for at least 3 months seems to improve the overall patient mental state, but not his or her physiological parameters, while improvement in negative symptoms and patient's empathy may occur only after a long-term physical exercise activity.
运动对人类健康的积极影响以及身体活动、健康和幸福感之间的关系在文献中得到了广泛的研究和充分的证明。然而，对于患有精神疾病的人，尤其是对于精神卫生保健系统中的住院患者，运动对心理健康和幸福感的影响却没有得到足够的关注。在这里，我们确定了短期（最长三个月）和长期（最长六个月）基于小组的运动计划对慢性心理健康住院患者的临床可行性和效果。在进行体育锻炼计划之前、期间和之后，监测了精神病症状、幸福感、同理心和生理健康因素（例如空腹血糖、血脂谱、血红蛋白 A1C 和 BMI）的变化。在这里，我们证明了长期的身体活动可以改善负面症状，但不能改善阳性症状，而 BPRS 问卷测量的疾病严重程度的改善与训练时间无关。我们还表明，与其他实验组相比，进行超过三个月运动的患者的同理心能力有了显著提高。在幸福感、情绪、满意度和功能方面，运动组和对照组之间没有发现显著差异。此外，身体活动并没有改善本研究中测量的任何生理参数。总的来说，这些数据表明，至少进行 3 个月的运动似乎可以改善患者的整体精神状态，但不能改善其生理参数，而只有在长期的身体运动活动后，才会改善负面症状和患者的同理心。
