Assignment 2
Exercise/Physical Activity and Mental Health
1) What was the rationale for doing the study? (2 marks)
According to studies, aerobic exercise has been shown to improve cognition in patients with schizophrenia. Although it still remains unclear whether or not the benefits of aerobic exercise exceed beyond the training period. The purpose of this study was to examine the immediate and the 3-month follow up effects of aerobic exercise on a wide range of cognitive functions in schizophrenia patients.
2) Briefly explain the design of the study (2 marks)
This study was a single-blind and randomized controlled design in which the patients had to meet very specific criteria in order to be eligible for the study. The patients who met the criteria were recruited from two community mental health centers. After baseline testing, participants were randomly al-located in the order in which they were enrolled into the study to participate in either AE (aerobic exercise) or a stretching and toning control group. The participants had to go through
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The AE intervention was individually tailored for each participant based on an individual’s age adjusted maximum heart rate. The patients showed a high prevalence of sedentary lifestyles which led to the exercise duration and intensity of the exercise to gradually increase over the 3-month time period. It is to be noted that duration and intensity was only increased until the participants were exercising at a moderate intensity and using 55 – 69% of their max heart rate. Each session lasted 40 minutes with 5 minutes of warming up, 30 minutes of exercise and 5 minutes cooling down following the session. However, the stretching and control group had a different program. The session for this group consisted of warming up, performing flexibility exercises followed by cooling-down
Participant has completed an adult pre-exercise screening assessment, is currently fit and has no history of medical conditions in which to influence the results or compromise wellbeing.
Motta, Kuligowski, and Marino (2010) reviewed the trends in literature on how exercise plays a role in reducing symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety in children. The researchers look at the literature on anxiety, depression
Although schizophrenia may come off as an interesting and unique disorder, it also relates to the Emotional, Social, and Intellectual dimensions of Health and Wellness. Schizophrenia is an disorder that affects a person’s ability to think, feel and behave clearly. The emotional dimension of the wellness wheel is described as the ability to understand ourselves and cope with the challenges life can bring. Also, the ability to acknowledge and share feelings of fear, sadness or stress; hope, love, joy and happiness in a productive manner contributes to our emotional wellness. This connects to schizophrenia because when you have this disorder it perceives you to imagine situations that aren’t actually happening. Usually people diagnosed with this
Despite the advances of antipsychotic medications, schizophrenia is a leading cause of global disability associated with high rates of hospitalizations, depression, and suicide attempts (Statistics Canada, 2015, para. 5). According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (2016), “schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves” (para. 1). Additionally, individuals with schizophrenia may experience varied symptoms including: delusions and hallucinations; movement and thought disorders; flat affect and decreased pleasure; and impaired attention and memory (NIMH, 2016, para. 4, 5, 6). The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of nonpharmacological interventions in the population of adults with schizophrenia. Several modalities of nonpharmacological treatments have been examined for efficacy, however our research focuses specifically on the following categories: (a) psychoeducation and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), (b) physical fitness and yoga programs, (c) combined pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapies, (d) case management and community services, and (e) technology and relational agents.
Most of the researches stated its efficacy in treating the patients with schizophrenia, treatment for an abnormal curvature of spine, rehabilitation for the chronic neck pain, for enhancing the energy metabolism. Therefore, the regime of exercise would be able to add positive prospects into the life of a being and reflect a culture of healthy lifestyle.
Jimmy LeeTakeuchi, H. G. (2015). Subtyping Schizophrenia by Treatment Response: Antipsychotic Development and the Central Role of Positive Symptoms. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 60(11), 515-522. Kaltsatou, A. A. (2015). Effects of exercise training with traditional dancing on functional capacity and quality of life in patients with schizophrenia: a randomized controlled study. Clinical Rehabilitation, 29(9), 882-891.
According to Wilk et al. (2005), cognitive impairment is thought to be a central feature of schizophrenia. It spans across a number of separate cognitive domains, such as attention, working memory, executive functions and verbal fluency (Reichenberg, 2010). This notion is also supported in another study done by Bowie and Harvey (2006), which suggests that as a result of schizophrenia being associated across discrete domains of cognitive impairment, it has led some to gather that it is a disease “with a global profile of neuropsychological impairment”.
Past fitness programs at our facility have used evaluation methods before, during and after programs are implemented. The first evaluation allows us to tailor offerings for current cohort and establish baseline measures. At the midpoint we make sure client’s needs are being met and make adjustments as necessary. The final evaluation demonstrates effectiveness and areas for improvement.
Smith et al. (2013) took a less studied approach to improving cognitive decline by testing the effects of aerobic exercise on adults (60-88 years old) already suffering from cognitive impairment. After 12 weeks of moderate exercise there was an improvement of memory and neural efficiency across all subjects.
This study discussed the research on exercise as an alternative treatment for adolescents suffering from depression. Adolescents participated in a randomized control trial as the researchers measured differences between two different types of intervention (EXER and STRETCH group). The results showed improvements for both groups, but some varying differences, with the EXER group showing more significant improvements. Overall, the results are hopeful but strengths and weaknesses need to be considered.
However, the control group was only required to be supervised on the initial session and then once a month for the entire 16 months. Everyone was encouraged to perform his or her exercise programs 5 to 7 days a week throughout the study. The FBF group included 2 months of flexibility training, followed by 2 months of small group exercises that included: flexibility, balance, and functional exercises. The AE group included 5 to 10 minutes of warm-ups, 30 minutes of exercises at 65 to 80% of their max heart rate, and 5 to 10 minutes of cool downs. The participants were allowed to use either a treadmill, stationary bike or elliptical for their aerobic exercise. The control group included exercises in the home setting using Fitness Counts.
Coronary artery disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States (Hall & Lorenc, 2010). Evidence has shown that cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is beneficial for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease (McLeod, Brooks, Taylor, Currie, & Dewhurst, 2004; Zullo, Dolansky, & Jackson, 2010). Cardiac rehabilitation is a versatile program that encroaches upon many disciplines in order to create an optimal medical therapy that seeks to educate patients through counseling to make behavioral changes that will improve their health status. The goal of CR is to reduce the risk of repeat cardiac events, improve cardiovascular health, and reduce all-cause mortality with the use of evidence-based guidelines (Lawler, Filion, & Eisenberg, 2011; Lobelo, Stoutenberg, & Hutber, 2014). Exercise therapy is a key factor to programming. Effective training protocol that elicits a high rate of compliance will produce positive outcomes. Although moderate intensity continuous training has been the main training regimen recommended in cardiac rehabilitation guidelines, Ito, Mizoguchi, and Saeki (2016) found high-intensity interval training reported to be more effective in the clinical and experimental setting from the standpoint of peak oxygen uptake and central and peripheral adaptations in their review.
There were 47 patients for this study, both men and women between the ages of 60 and 80 years, overweight, recently sedentary, nonsmokers, and had established type 2 diabetes without the use of insulin. The subjects were separated between two groups by the type of exercise they would perform. Both were provided a healthy eating plan designed to provide a moderate weight loss of 0.25 kg/week for the course of the study. Adherence to the diet was assessed in biweekly interviews with the participants. Both groups visited the exercise lab 3 nonconsecutive days per week for 6 months. The control group exercise was designed to increase flexibility but not improve cardiovascular
Of the 10 studies, six of them were randomized controlled trials, one had a quasi-experimental design, and three of the studies were single group studies. The duration of the intervention ranged from 3 to 52 weeks, with only one study spanning one full year. Some studies involved the use of pedometers or accelerometers, and those studies had pre and post-intervention measures which lasted between five days to three weeks (Buchholz et al.,
Mrs. Glensy Patterson’s initial program is progressed from 20-30 minutes to 30-40 minute sessions with the inclusion of local aerobic activities to the program as the aerobic/cardiac component to create a social experience which can be continued with self-management. If the client is compliant a few more exercises will be added, all resistance exercises are performed either body weight or using a theraband. It is recommended to progress exercise duration, rather than intensity in initial stages of exercise.