Patients with mood and mental disorders often undergo inpatient treatment to help reduce the symptoms they feel with the help of medication. But recent studies show that there may be a different way to relieve a patient’s symptoms without relying on medication alone, and that is through physical exercise.
According to David Tomasi, psychotherapist and inpatient psychiatry group therapist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, lecturer at the University of Vermont, and lead researcher on the study, a common attitude in medicine is to treat the underlying problem first, and this exercise has never been considered as an option for treating disorders. He further stated that after the positive effects of exercise on patients had been studied, it could be used in conjunction with pharmacological intervention to assist in inpatient treatment. Simply put, it can help shorten the patient’s stay time in these facilities due to the rapid response to the effects of physical activities.
Most inpatient psychiatric facilities are often crowded which can cause distress and discomfort to the patients there. The practitioners who run and run these facilities often rely on psychiatric medications throughout, rather than making use of natural therapies, such as exercise, to help reduce a patient’s symptoms such as anger, depression, and anxiety. Tomasi believes that there are only a few inpatient psychiatric facilities that actually have a therapist-supported gym in their facilities for use by their patients. It is common practice in these facilities to use pharmacological and psychotherapeutic frameworks to manage patients’ symptoms, as they are regularly monitored to determine whether they can be released from their facilities.
In this study, Tomasi joined forces with UVMMC’s Emily Raines and Sherry Gates to build a gymnasium designed exclusively for patients in an inpatient psychiatric unit where they taught their patients an hour-long structured exercise as well as diet programs based on their condition. . On the other hand, psychotherapists studied the patients in terms of their self-esteem and mood as well as their self-image, before and after the exercise, to determine if there were any effects of their symptoms an hour after the treatment. Exercise.
Those who participated in the exercise reported becoming less angry, depressed, and anxious during and after the exercise, with increased self-esteem and a better mood afterwards. The researchers found that about 95% of the patients experienced an improvement in their mood while doing the structured exercises they devised, with 63% of the patients feeling happier during the exercise compared to those who felt neutral, sad, or even very sad. afterwards. Furthermore, about 91.8% of the patients were completely pleased with the way their bodies felt after the workout.
Tomasi explained that the results of their studies showed that if the patients were in a psychotic state, doing psychotherapy or talk therapy wouldn’t do much, because the patient was not in the right state where he could understand the message he was being told. they. However, during exercise, patients will be able to show their emotional state which is something that has not been seen with the use of medication alone.
For Tomasi, the main goal of their study is to provide health practitioners with more natural strategies in treating different types of mood disorders such as schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression. He also hoped that more psychiatric facilities would be open to the idea of using complementary therapies, such as adding exercise in their way of treating their patients, as one of the key components of their patients’ psychological and physical well-being.
Should the exercise be described?
Could doctors prescribe exercises in inpatient psychiatric facilities in the future? For Professor Tomasi, he hopes that will be true in the future because the risks and costs associated with setting up a gym are minimal at best plus it can also be a good intervention.
However, the study they conducted was relatively small which is one of its shortcomings. They were unable to follow the patients over the following days and weeks which may give them additional information. Another point they considered was that the windows that were present in the new gymnasium facility allowed in more natural light something not available in the rest of their facility. Note that exposure to natural light has an effect on a person’s mood. However, Tomasi’s study focuses on the overall experience of doing a structured exercise program in a welcoming environment that yielded results.
The main finding in their study was that this type of intervention enhanced their patients’ happiness and overall well-being without even taking any medications.
We all know that exercise has many health benefits, and although we see it as a way to maintain physical fitness, Professor Tomasi and his team have given it another use to help patients with mental disorders and mood disorders that may be. used in the long term.