A variety of daily movements is related to better well-being, according to a small new study of psychiatric patients, a finding that may help explain why pandemic blockages have been harsh for so many of us.
Staying active during a global pandemic has been quite difficult, especially when many people are afraid to go right outside. Some have started to exercise at home, and yet, in a normal world, spontaneous outings are important health factors that we tend to underestimate.
When most of us think of mental stimulation activities, we imagine deliberate and strenuous exercises, such as jogging, cycling, or swimming, but it seems that just visiting a variety of different locations is associated with a better sense of well-being with depression. or anxiety.
A recent study published by researchers at the University Psychiatric Clinics in Basel, Switzerland, found that the more varied places people visit, the better they feel about their emotional and psychological well-being – even if their health symptoms mental are still there.
The study was conducted before the pandemic and examined 106 patients with mental health problems, including emotional disorders, anxiety, mood disorders, personality disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some were hospitalized and others were outpatients, lived at home, but required regular care from medical institutions.
For a week, these patients carried an extra phone with them to track their GPS movements. They also completed 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 greater movement in space and time seemed to coincide with a better sense of well-being, even though the symptoms of mental health problems remained largely the same.
Outpatients spent almost a third of their day at home, but of course they showed considerably more movement than inpatients, who spent most of their time in hospital.
As expected, those patients with phobias or anxieties related to leaving safe spaces were strongly linked to a much lower mobility and a much smaller area of activity. However, no other symptoms of mental health problems seemed to have the same effect on the patient’s daily movements.
In contrast, higher levels of emotional well-being and, to a lesser extent, psychological flexibility have been consistently associated with more movement and greater variety of movement.
“Our results suggest that activity alone is not enough to reduce the symptoms of mental disorders, but it can at least improve subjective well-being,” explains clinical and health psychologist Andrew Gloster of the University of Basel.
The findings add to a limited amount of research on the effects of daily activities among those with mental health problems. In fact, this is one of the first studies to use GPS tracking as a measure of spontaneous movement.
Obviously, in the real world, such data could be seen as a violation of patient privacy, but in a study setting, it allows researchers to examine the effects of simple activities that are often overlooked.
Physical activity has been shown to substantially improve mental well-being and health, but most research on this topic has so far focused on deliberate exercise. Today, it is unclear how spontaneous movement in daily life affects patients seeking mental health treatment.
Last year, a small study of 67 participants found that daily activities, such as walking to the tram station or climbing stairs, made people feel more alert and energetic.
Additional magnetic resonance imaging of participants’ brains showed those who felt more energetic after movement had a larger volume of gray-gray matter in the subgenual cingulate cortex – a part of the brain associated with emotional regulation.
Learning how to apply this knowledge to prevent and treat mental health problems is completely different, but simple movements could be a harmless place to start.
“We are currently facing severe restrictions on public life and social contacts, which could adversely affect our well-being,” said neurologist Heike Tost in November 2020.
“To feel better, it can help you climb stairs more often.”
Simply going outside can also play an important role. Physical activity in nature in childhood has been linked to better results on mental health as an adult, and doctors in some parts of the world have begun to “prescribe” time in nature as a stimulus for mental and physical health.
The new GPS study is small and limited, but the findings suggest that movement may be a predictor of how patients with mental health problems generally cope.
“The results indicate that movement patterns (eg distance, number of destinations, variability of destinations, etc.) can 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 expand these findings, but the authors suggest that using GPS could be a non-intrusive way to better examine simple daily activity and its effect on mental health and well-being.
The study was published in BMC Psychiatry.