Brief, Intense Exercise More Effective In Treating Panic Disorder Than Standard Care: Study

A study suggests that brief, intense intermittent exercise might be more effective in treating panic disorder, compared to standard care which involves psychotherapy sessions.Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that helps an individual develop strategies to address personal problems by changing one's thought processes. Researchers from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil said that supervised walking interspersed with repeated 30-second high-intensity sprints is a more effective treatment for panic disorder, compared to 'interoceptive exposure' -- where therapists trigger common symptoms of panic attacks like chest pain, sweating, rapid respiration, and a racing heart in a safe, controlled environment. "Here we show that a 12-week program of brief intense intermittent exercise can be used as an interoceptive exposure strategy to treat panic disorder patients," author Ricardo William Muotri, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Sao Paulo Medical School in Brazil, said.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, looked at 102 adult women and men diagnosed with panic disorder.

The participants were divided in two groups and did three sessions every week of their allocated exercise during a follow-up period of 12 weeks. No drugs were administered to either group throughout the trial.

Patients in the experimental group began each session with a bout of muscle-stretching, followed by 15 minutes of walking and one to six 30-seconds-long bouts of high-intensity running alternating with 4.5-minutes of active recovery, and ending with additional 15 minutes of walking.

Patients in the second group did segmental muscle contraction exercises in the brachial, scapular, cervical, facial, dorsal, abdominal, and lower limb regions, followed by localised muscle relaxation.

Data collected via monitoring devices worn during the exercises was analysed.

Average scores on the 'Panic and Agoraphobia' scale and those for anxiety and depression fell over time in both the groups, but more steeply in the brief intense intermittent exercise arm, the researchers said.

Frequency and severity of panic attacks also decreased more in the brief intense intermittent exercise arm, they said.

"A 12-week BIE (brief intermittent intense exercise) program used as interoceptive exposure was feasible and more effective than relaxation training in reducing panic symptom severity and panic attack frequency, with effects sustained for at least 24 weeks," the authors wrote.

Muotri said, "Healthcare professionals can adopt brief intermittent intense exercise as a natural and low-cost interoceptive exposure strategy. It doesn't need to take place in a clinical setting, so that exposure to the symptoms of a panic attack is brought closer to the patient's daily life." "It could also be integrated into care models for anxiety and depression disorders," the author said.

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