Having a panic attack? Keep calm and get a move on.
Panic attacks — sudden, overwhelming feelings of fear that trigger physical symptoms — are quite common.
Over 28% of adults will experience at least one of these episodes at some point, with 2% to 3% of the US population having panic attacks often enough that they are believed to have panic disorder.
Panic disorder is typically treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or antidepressants.
Now, researchers in Brazil say they have identified a more effective therapy — brief bouts of intense exercise.
“Here we show that a 12-week program of brief intense intermittent exercise can be used as an interoceptive exposure strategy to treat panic disorder patients,” said Ricardo William Muotri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Anxiety Disorders Program of the University of São Paulo Medical School.
Interoceptive exposure is a CBT technique of intentionally inducing symptoms like a racing heart or dizziness in a safe setting to break the cycle of anxiety and panic.
For the study, published Monday, 102 adults with panic disorder were assigned the exercise program or a form of relaxation therapy for 12 weeks.
The exercise routine involved stretching muscles, walking for 15 minutes, performing one to six sets of high-intensity running for 30 seconds, recovering for 4.5 minutes after each set and, finally, walking for 15 minutes again.
The other participants, meanwhile, did muscle contraction and relaxation exercises.
None took drugs during the trial.
Everyone wore biometric monitoring devices in their sessions, which occurred three times a week.
The effects were measured on the Panic and Agoraphobia Scale (PAS), which assesses the severity of the panic disorder based on 13 survey questions.
The researchers also tracked the participants’ reports on the frequency and severity of their panic attacks.
For both the exercise and relaxation groups, the average PAS scores and scores for anxiety and depression declined over 24 weeks.
The exercise group experienced a more pronounced drop in scores as well as a steeper decrease in the frequency and severity of their panic attacks.
Also, those who followed the exercise regimen seemed to enjoy the assignment more than the participants who underwent the relaxation therapy.
Researchers hope that this means that patients would be more engaged and compliant with the routine.
The findings were published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
“Healthcare professionals can adopt brief intermittent intense exercise as a natural and low-cost interoceptive exposure strategy,” Muotri said.
“It doesn’t need to take place in a clinical setting, so that exposure to the symptoms of a panic attack is brought closer to the patient’s daily life,” he added. “It could also be integrated into care models for anxiety and depression disorders.”
