Mental Illness And The Barriers For Physical Activity

Million of Americans go through the blues and sad moments from clinical depression each year. Most patients with depression first seek treatment from a therapist or a primary care provider. However, exercise is a developmental behavior intervention that has displayed strong promise in alleviating symptoms of depression. The objective is examine whether physical activity is associated with depression in an average size population based on gender and age. A total of 310 participates ( 123 Male and 184 females and 3 other ) of UO students and other random volunteered to participate. All participants age ranged from 14 to 99, had to completed two self- report questionnaires. Besides answering question on their exercise habits during the past week, also took into account that all participants also completed CES-D questionnaire that determine their depression levels. In the surveyed there was a lower level of depression with more frequent weekly exercise give it a negative correlation. Also with the duration question, showed a significant negative correlation with the levels of depression. The efficiency of exercise in reducing depression cannot be determined because of the small size of participates and the lack of excellent quality research on population with adequate follow up

Some hypothesize that moderate levels of exercise will decrease the symptoms of mental health conditions (Blumenthal et al., 2007; Diaz & Motta, 2008; Motta, Kuligowski, & Marino, 2010; Rosenbaum, Nguyen, Lenehan, Tiedemann, van der Ploeg, & Sherrington, 2011) and therefore be used as an alternative or complimentary treatment option for mental health (Libby, Pilver, & Desai, 2012).

Many mental disorders and diseases can be treated overtime or minimised through physical activity and exercise in studies confirmed by Norway scientists; highlighting that through a four-year study depression, anxiety cardiovascular diseases are decreased in adults that engage in regular exercise (Zshuckle, Gaudiltz and Ströhle, 2013). As research shows us, the relationship between PTSD and poor physical health is predominant in the case of fear; restricting the patient in partaking in physical

An exercise intervention could be used especially because people who are depressed feel a sense of worthlessness (as in the definition of depression, DSM-V ) . A pilot study by Nadine McGale et al (2011) investigated the effectiveness of a team-based sport with an individual exercise and a control condition of young men. This study included a 10-week randomized control trial and an 8-week post intervention follow-up. A group of 104 sedentary males (exercise once or less per week) aged between 18 and 40 years were randomly assigned to the three groups namely the team-based sport, individual exercise and the control group (that received no intervention). The participants completed the Becks Depression Inventory- 2nd

For the purpose of this essay the author sought to explore PDSA cycle and identified health promotion in mental health patients as an area for service improvement. It is evident that the life of patients suffering from psychosis, mood and behaviour disturbances is failing. Tranter et al (2012), Happell et al (2013) and Robinson and Potts (2014) suggest that these patients suffer from various physical health conditions such as coronary heart disease, respiratory problems, diabetes and cancers which consequently leads to a reduced life expectancy of 10 -20 years compared to the general population. According to Tranter et al (2012) there are three types of interventions which can be used to improve the health and wellbeing of patients suffering from mental illness. They are assessment of physical health, health education or promotion and multimodal interventions. Roberts and Bailey (2013) suggested that adherence and engaging individuals with these interventions is a major

Depressive persons tend to have a lower amount of physical activity because of their lack of motivation. Depression is found in a variety of people, but is especially prevalent among adolescents .But these findings would support us to conclude that physical fitness is therapeutic psychologically and physiologically in treating depression. Prescribing an appropriate regiment of exercise is shown in this study to decrease symptoms of depression in adolescent females.

Heladóttír, Hallgren, Ekblom, Forsell (2016) sought to find an optimal dosage of exercise to elicit positive responses in those diagnosed with depression using three varying intensities. With frequency and duration kept consistent, 620 participants, including ages 18 to 67, were randomly assigned different treatment groups. These included (1) continuing their usual treatment, (2) light exercise like yoga, (3) moderate aerobic exercise, and (4) vigorous aerobic exercise. The training program lasted for 12 weeks, requiring subjects to exercise 55 minutes 3 times a week. The researchers measured depression severity at baseline and post-treatment while monitoring heart rate during every session using a monitor. Following the conclusion of the study, the results indicated that depression severity decreased in al exercise groups. However, the optimal dosage for exercise prescription remains uncertain. These findings suggest that light exercise, such as yoga, were more beneficial than the other intensities

The term "exercise", has been used interchangeably with “physical activity” (Taylor, 1983). Physical exercise implies a regular, structured, leisure-time pursuit (Salmon, 2001). The overwhelming evidence confirms that exercises contribute to mood improvement (Salmon, 2001). As for the definition of depression, it is a psychological state and mental disorder associated with feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and sometimes loss of interest in interaction with people or the activities that the person like (Landers, 1997).

There are several interventions that correlate with increased physical activity, goal-setting, self-monitoring, and feedback. Several studies have examined the

Exercise behavior is the study of theories which work to explain actions and phenomenon’s that occur when looking at peoples perspectives of exercise. One overall theory called The Transtheoretical model (TTM), includes elements from “across a variety of theories and models behavior, some of which are social-cognitive in nature and some of which are not” (79). The TTM describes five stages of behavior change: Precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. By using TTM as the base of multiple theories, a greater picture of exercise behavior is created to understand how individuals become interested and continue to make a life style that involves normal exercise.

Barriers that can complicate physical activity are hard to eliminate but can be worked with, benefits and rewards associated with physical activity can help the patients become more active and helpful strategies were provided to create better circumstances for these patients with everyday obstacles. In all, this personal perspective information can be used in future research and studies to design a system where all diagnosed schizophrenics can successfully and comfortably preform physical activity in their day to day lives to improve their overall health and

In the article “A Qualitative Study Exploring Facilitators for Improved Health Behaviors and Health Behavior Programs: Mental Health Service Users’ Perspectives,” in The Scientific World Journal, we learn that world wide there is an increased risk for clients with mental health issues to also have physical health issues. Ability and influence are crucial aspects to captivate mental health service clients in essential health management revisions and treatment commitment.

General recommendations are now widely accepted as to the general advantages of exercise in terms of physical health, such as its ability to prevent weight gain, coronary heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and osteoporosis.14 It appears that health promotion schemes have shied away from extolling exercise’s psychological benefits. After all, there is no government campaign, no public policy initiative, which pontificates exercise on account of a concern for mental wellbeing. Although many people would identify that exercise has a positive influence on mood state, it appears that, generally speaking, this is regarded as a positive correlation, rather than a causal relationship. The ‘healthy body, healthy mind’ concept is thus, for many, a heuristic utopia, rather than a scientifically proven

They found that an exercise training programme could be an alternative treatment for MDD. Although antidepressants had a more rapid response than exercise, after 16 weeks of exercise the effectiveness in reducing depression was equal to the anti-depressants. A study also found that a single bout of exercise could result in substantial improvements in mood, which shows that it’s not just duration and frequency. However, it may be that the improvement in mood is only temporary (Dimeo et al., 2001). Lawler and Hopker (2001) stated that effectiveness of exercise on depression couldn’t be determined due to lack of quality research based on clinical populations. They also wrote that the explanations of the results may have been that depressed patients who did regular exercise could have got positive feedback from other people and a sense of self worth, which may act as a diversion from negative thoughts. Physical activity was found to be linked with less coexisting depression, which remains the same after controlling for gender, age, and race. The results of the study showed that physical activity is helpful with medical problems, life stressors and quality of sleep (Harris et al., 2006).

Exercise may be one of the most important influences on your overall health to date. While the only benefits that are mainly focused on are the physical benefits, significant psychological impacts can also be linked to exercise. Although some of these benefits aren’t viewed with much enthusiasm, studies have proven that exercise can actually improve one’s quality of life greatly by increasing not only their physical health but their mental health as well. It is because of this that exercise is a