Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is an anxiety disorder that can be developed by experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event or ongoing traumatic situations/events. These are events that are extremely distressing or frightening.
This can be experiences such as a car crash, natural disasters, domestic or sexual abuse, violent crime or working in a war zone. People with PTSD can relive the trauma through vivid memories and flashbacks which can impact their daily life.
PTSD can affect people of any age, and the symptoms normally begin within the first three months after the traumatic experience.
The World Health Organisation estimates that around 3.9% of the worlds population has had PTSD at some stage in their lives, and more women are affected than men.
What are the current treatments for PTSD?
Statistics have shown that 2 in 3 people who have PTSD get better within a few weeks without treatment. However, if treatment is required, or if symptoms return meaning they need treatment this may involve psychotherapy and/or medication.
Psychotherapies include:
CBT - Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or TF-CBT - Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
CBT is a type of talking therapy that changes the way you think and behave. TF-CBT combines talking therapy with exposure techniques that help overcome negative effects such as overwhelming stress from the trauma.
EMDR - Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing
This is used to alleviate the distress associated with the trauma by helping to process the negative emotions and body sensations associated with the memories. It involves side to side eye movements combined with talking therapy.
Medication:
Antidepressant medication is used to treat PTSD and its symptoms, such as anxiety.
How does exercise come into it?
In recent years, exercise has been added on to psychotherapy as part of the treatment for PTSD to enhance the benefits of the psychotherapy and reducing the risk of relapse. Aerobic exercise (such as walking, swimming, running, and cycling) on its own has also been found to have positive effects on PTSD symptoms even without the psychotherapy element. Although the two combined has been found to be the most effective.
What’s the evidence?
GALENOS examined the existing evidence including research that had already been published globally. Of the 13,092 identified records relating to the topic, 25 were found to match GALENOS’ strict criteria for review.
By reviewing these studies, the GALENOS team found that exercise, particularly high-intensity exercise, is beneficial especially in improving functional impairment in people with PTSD. They have not, however, found enough data to understand exactly how exercise helps. It is theorised that exercise increases the levels of brain chemicals associated with stress reduction and mood regulation such as Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. BDNF plays an important part in keeping the brain healthy and is a key molecule involved in brain plasticity which helps learning and memory.
By enhancing BDNF levels for example, exercise may help people with PTSD to permanently forget traumatic memories. Engaging in regular exercise can boost self-esteem and confidence, which are often diminished in individuals with PTSD.
You can read more about these findings here.
So what’s next?
The Living Systematic Review carried out by GALENOS will continue to review the evidence and research into exercise and PTSD. The team have highlighted that more research is needed so that we can fully understand the exact mechanism the makes exercise to beneficial to the 312 million people estimated to be impacted by PTSD.
