The therapeutic potential of exercise in post-traumatic stress disorder and its underlying mechanisms: A living systematic review of human and non-human studies.

Q1 Medicine

Wellcome Open Research Pub Date : 2025-04-07 eCollection Date: 2024-01-01 DOI:10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23033.2

Simonne Wright, Virginia Chiocchia, Olufisayo Elugbadebo, Ouma Simple, Toshi A Furukawa, Claire Friedrich, Charlotte Austin, Hossein Dehdarirad, David Gilbert, Jaycee Kennett, Edoardo G Ostinelli, Jennifer Potts, Fiona Ramage, Emily Sena, Spyridon Siafis, Claire Stansfield, James Thomas, Francesca Tinsdeall, Thomy Tonia, Malcolm Macleod, Andrea Cipriani, Georgia Salanti, Soraya Seedat

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Exercise for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a potentially effective adjunct to psychotherapy. However, the biopsychosocial mechanisms of exercise are not well understood. This co-produced living systematic review synthesizes evidence from human and non-human studies.

Methods: We Included controlled human and non-human studies involving searches of multiple electronic databases (until 31.10.23). Records were screened, extracted, assessed for risk of bias, and reconciled by two independent reviewers. The primary outcome for human studies was PTSD symptom severity, while outcomes of interest for non-human studies included freezing behaviour, fear memory, fear generalization, startle response, and locomotion. Data were synthesised with random-effects meta-analysis.

Results: Eleven human studies met the eligibility criteria. Overall, exercise was not associated with symptom severity improvement compared to control (standardized mean difference [SMD] -0.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.24 to 0.07; 8 studies, one at low risk of bias). High-intensity exercise reduced PTSD symptoms scores more than moderate-intensity exercise. There was insufficient data to examine the effects of exercise on functional impairment, PTSD symptom clusters, and PTSD remission. Only three studies, all at high risk of bias, examined mechanisms of exercise with inconclusive results. Exercise was associated with improvement in all behavioural outcomes, including locomotor activity (SMD 1.30, 95% CI 0.74 to 1.87, 14 studies), and changes in several neurobiological markers, including increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (SMD 1.79, 95% CI 0.56 to 3.01).

Conclusions: While non-human studies provide compelling evidence for the beneficial effects of exercise, human trials do not. Evidence from non-human studies suggest that exercise might increase the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, enhance cognitive appraisal, and improve perceived exertion. Overall, the paucity of data on the effectiveness of exercise in PTSD and mechanisms of action underscore the need for rigorous trials.

Registration: The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (ID:453615; 22.08.2023).

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来源期刊

Wellcome Open Research Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (all)

CiteScore

5.50

自引率

0.00%

发文量

426

审稿时长

1 weeks

期刊介绍： Wellcome Open Research publishes scholarly articles reporting any basic scientific, translational and clinical research that has been funded (or co-funded) by Wellcome. Each publication must have at least one author who has been, or still is, a recipient of a Wellcome grant. Articles must be original (not duplications). All research, including clinical trials, systematic reviews, software tools, method articles, and many others, is welcome and will be published irrespective of the perceived level of interest or novelty; confirmatory and negative results, as well as null studies are all suitable. See the full list of article types here. All articles are published using a fully transparent, author-driven model: the authors are solely responsible for the content of their article. Invited peer review takes place openly after publication, and the authors play a crucial role in ensuring that the article is peer-reviewed by independent experts in a timely manner. Articles that pass peer review will be indexed in PubMed and elsewhere. Wellcome Open Research is an Open Research platform: all articles are published open access; the publishing and peer-review processes are fully transparent; and authors are asked to include detailed descriptions of methods and to provide full and easy access to source data underlying the results to improve reproducibility.