HealthDay News – For patients with panic disorder (PD), 12 weeks of brief intermittent acute Exercise Jacobson’s (BIE) program is feasible and more effective than relaxation training (RT) in reducing the severity of panic symptoms, according to a study published online in February. Frontiers in psychiatry.
Ph.D. from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Ricardo Willian Muotri and colleagues investigated the feasibility and efficacy of a BIE program compared to RT in treatment-free patients with PD in a prospective randomized clinical trial involving 72 sedentary adults with PD. Participants were randomly allocated to a 12-week BIE program or RT (37 and 35 individuals, respectively); Everyone received the same placebo drug. Panic Agoraphobia Scale (PAS) scores were assessed at baseline and weeks 6, 12, and 24 as the primary outcome.
The researchers found that over time, both groups improved, but for PAS scores, a significant group-by-time interaction favored BIE. PAS scores in the BIE group at week 12 were lower than those in RT and the difference persisted at week 24. BIE also had fewer panic attacks during follow-up, as well as lower Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores.
“Health care professionals can adopt brief intermittent intense exercise as a natural and low-cost interoceptive exposure strategy,” Muotri said in a statement. “It does not need to take place in a clinical setting, so that exposure to panic attack symptoms can be brought closer to the patient’s daily life. It can also be integrated into care models for anxiety and Depression Disorder.”
