According to a small new study among psychiatric patients, there are a variety of everyday movements associated with better well-being, which can be found that can help explain why pandemic lockouts were difficult for so many of us.
Staying active during a global pandemic has been quite difficult, especially when many people are afraid to even go outside. Some went to exercise at home, and yet spontaneous outings in a normal world are important health factors that we tend to underestimate.
When most of us think of mind-blowing activities, we suggest that we do deliberate and strenuous exercise, such as jogging, cycling, or swimming, but visiting a variety of places seems to be accompanied by ‘ a higher sense of well-being in people. with depression or anxiety.
A recently published study by researchers at the University Psychiatric Clinics in Basel, Switzerland, found that the different places people visit, the better they feel about their emotional and psychological well-being – even if their mental health symptoms are still there.
The study was conducted before the pandemic and looked at 106 patients with mental health problems, including affective disorders, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Some were inpatients in hospitals and others outpatients, lived at home but cared regularly at medical institutions.
These patients took an extra phone with them for a week to track their movements with GPS. They also conducted several surveys on their subjective well-being, their psychological flexibility, and their mental health symptoms.
Comparing GPS maps with the results of these surveys, the authors found that the greater movement in space and time seemed to have a greater sense of well-being, although the symptoms of mental health problems remained largely the same.
Outpatients spent almost a third of their day at home, but understandably showed significantly greater movement than inpatients, who spent most of their time in the hospital.
As expected, the patients with phobias or anxiety about leaving safe spaces were strongly associated with much less mobility and a much smaller area of activity. Yet no other symptoms of mental health appear to have the same effect on a patient’s daily movements.
In contrast, higher levels of emotional well-being and, to a lesser extent, psychological flexibility were consistently associated with more movement and a greater variety of movements.
“Our results suggest that activity alone is not enough to reduce symptoms of mental disorders, but that it can at least improve subjective well-being,” explains clinical and health psychologist Andrew Gloster of the University of Basel.
The findings contribute to a limited amount of research on the effects of everyday activities among people with mental health issues. In fact, it is one of the first studies to use GPS tracking as a measure of spontaneous movement.
Clearly, in the real world, such data can be seen as a violation of patients’ privacy, but in a study environment, researchers can explore the effects of simple activities that are often overlooked.
Physical activity has been shown to significantly improve well-being and mental health, but most research on this topic so far has focused on intentional exercise. Today, it is unclear how spontaneous exercise in daily life has patients seeking treatment for mental health.
Last year, a small study among 67 participants found that everyday activities, such as walking to the tram stop or climbing a staircase, made people feel more alert and energetic.
Further magnetic resonance imaging of the brains of participants showed that those who felt more energetic after movement had a larger volume of gray brain material in the subgenual cingular cortex – a part of the brain associated with emotional regulation.
It is a very different matter to find out how you can apply this knowledge to prevent and treat mental health issues, but simple movements can be a harmless place to start.
“Currently, we are experiencing strong constraints on public life and social contacts, which could harm our well-being,” neuroscientist Heike Tost said in November 2020.
“Feeling better can help you climb stairs more often.”
Just going outside can also play a contributing role. Physical activity in nature as a child was linked to better mental health outcomes as an adult, and physicians in some parts of the world began to ‘prescribe’ time in nature as a boost to mental and physical health.
The new GPS study is small and limited, but the findings suggest that exercise may be a predictor of how well patients with mental health can cope.
“The results suggest that movement patterns (e.g., distance, number of destinations, volatility of destinations, etc.) may serve as a marker of functioning and well-being,” the authors of the new study conclude.
Much more research needs to be done to confirm and extend these findings, but the authors suggest that the use of GPS may be a non-invasive way to improve simple, daily activities and their effect on mental health and well-being. investigation.
The study was published in BMC Psychiatry.