drz
10-27-2012, 12:54 PM
The study was published online (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743512003945) September 7 in Preventive Medicine.
The study included self-reported data on physical activity and mental health symptoms from 7674 adults from the 2007 US Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS).
Mental health was assessed using the 6-item HINTS questionnaire, which poses questions about psychological distress, depression, and anxiety over the past 30 days. Participants were also asked to report the frequency and duration of their participation in physical activity that caused an increase in breathing.
The researchers also looked at the association between mental health and other variables, such as age, employment, marital status, education, income, physical health, and race and ethnicity.
The investigators found that individuals who engaged in 2.5 to 7.5 hours of exercise per week were 1.39 times more likely to have better mental health, compared with those who exercised for less or greater amounts of time (P = .006).
Older age, college education, income over $50,000 per year, and better physical health were also associated with improved mental health.
"If someone is exercising 10 to 15 hours a week, it's likely to be at the expense of other activities that could bring his or her life into balance," Dr. Maidenberg told Medscape Medical News.
Dr. Garber noted that frequent exercise of 8 hours or more per week may come at the expense of other things important for mental health, such as social interaction, family ties, and relaxation time.
"There are good data that rigorous physical activity for 30 minutes a day is fairly effective treatment for depression," Dr. Maidenberg said.
Yet, when a person feels that frequent bouts of exercise are a need, rather than a choice, then physical activity has the potential to be compulsive, he noted.
When exercise is a compulsion, it is likely to be seen as part of a constellation of symptoms in a mental illness, such as anorexia or obsessive compulsive disorder, Dr. Maidenberg said.
"If a patient says: 'I need to work out for 2 hours a day, and if I don't, I feel anxious,' that's an indication that their activity is driven by anxiety and not choice," he said.
The study included self-reported data on physical activity and mental health symptoms from 7674 adults from the 2007 US Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS).
Mental health was assessed using the 6-item HINTS questionnaire, which poses questions about psychological distress, depression, and anxiety over the past 30 days. Participants were also asked to report the frequency and duration of their participation in physical activity that caused an increase in breathing.
The researchers also looked at the association between mental health and other variables, such as age, employment, marital status, education, income, physical health, and race and ethnicity.
The investigators found that individuals who engaged in 2.5 to 7.5 hours of exercise per week were 1.39 times more likely to have better mental health, compared with those who exercised for less or greater amounts of time (P = .006).
Older age, college education, income over $50,000 per year, and better physical health were also associated with improved mental health.
"If someone is exercising 10 to 15 hours a week, it's likely to be at the expense of other activities that could bring his or her life into balance," Dr. Maidenberg told Medscape Medical News.
Dr. Garber noted that frequent exercise of 8 hours or more per week may come at the expense of other things important for mental health, such as social interaction, family ties, and relaxation time.
"There are good data that rigorous physical activity for 30 minutes a day is fairly effective treatment for depression," Dr. Maidenberg said.
Yet, when a person feels that frequent bouts of exercise are a need, rather than a choice, then physical activity has the potential to be compulsive, he noted.
When exercise is a compulsion, it is likely to be seen as part of a constellation of symptoms in a mental illness, such as anorexia or obsessive compulsive disorder, Dr. Maidenberg said.
"If a patient says: 'I need to work out for 2 hours a day, and if I don't, I feel anxious,' that's an indication that their activity is driven by anxiety and not choice," he said.