The acute mood effects of a single rehabilitation exercise session on cardiac patients

In this study the acute emotional effects of exercise training were examined in a sample of 60 cardiac patients who were attending a community cardiac rehabilitation programme. A battery of questionnaires which included standard psychological tests assessing positive effect (PE), negative effect (NE) and state anxiety (SA) were administered 10 minutes pre-exercise and 10 minutes post-exercise. Change in psychological state over the duration of the exercise session was investigated. Immediately following the exercise session there was a significant increase in PE, a significant decrease in NE and a significant decrease in SA. The majority of patients reported a positive baseline psychological profile. Psychological and physiological arguments are put forward to explain the results. The implications of the findings are discussed.