Suchergebnisse

Background: Latest research demonstrates a significant improvement in stress-related symptoms in psychological disorders as a result of exercise training (ET). Controlled clinical trials further validate the significance of ET by demonstrating lower salivary cortisol levels in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after intervention. A significant change in cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels can already be found after an 8-12-week ET program. The proposed study aims to investigate the impact of an 8-week ET on PTSD symptoms and changes in cortisol levels in a juvenile refugee sample from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at an Ugandan refugee settlement. It is the first to implement an ET intervention in a resource-poor, post-conflict setting. Methods/design: In a randomized controlled trial, 198 adolescent participants aged 13-16 years from the DRC who, suffer from PTSD, will be investigated. The participants are based at the Nakivale refugee settlement, an official refugee camp in Uganda, Africa, which is among the largest in the world. The participants will be randomized into an Exercise Training (ET) group with a maximum heart rate (HRmax) of > 60%, an Alternative Intervention (AI) group with low-level exercises, and a Waiting-list Control (WC) group. After the 8-week interventional phase, changes in cortisol awakening response (CAR) and DHEA in the ET group that correspond to an improvement in PTSD symptoms are expected that remain at follow-up after 3 months. Discussion: To date, there is no controlled and reliable longitudinal study examining the effects of an ET program on symptom severity in individuals with PTSD that can be explained with a harmonization of cortisol secretion. The presented study design introduces an intervention that can be implemented with little expenditure. It aims to provide a promising low-threshold and cost-effective treatment approach for the application in resource-poor settings.

Background: Latest research demonstrates a significant improvement in stress-related symptoms in psychological disorders as a result of exercise training (ET). Controlled clinical trials further validate the significance of ET by demonstrating lower salivary cortisol levels in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after intervention. A significant change in cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels can already be found after an 8-12-week ET program. The proposed study aims to investigate the impact of an 8-week ET on PTSD symptoms and changes in cortisol levels in a juvenile refugee sample from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at an Ugandan refugee settlement. It is the first to implement an ET intervention in a resource-poor, post-conflict setting. Methods/design: In a randomized controlled trial, 198 adolescent participants aged 13-16 years from the DRC who, suffer from PTSD, will be investigated. The participants are based at the Nakivale refugee settlement, an official refugee camp in Uganda, Africa, which is among the largest in the world. The participants will be randomized into an Exercise Training (ET) group with a maximum heart rate (HRmax) of > 60%, an Alternative Intervention (AI) group with low-level exercises, and a Waiting-list Control (WC) group. After the 8-week interventional phase, changes in cortisol awakening response (CAR) and DHEA in the ET group that correspond to an improvement in PTSD symptoms are expected that remain at follow-up after 3 months. Discussion: To date, there is no controlled and reliable longitudinal study examining the effects of an ET program on symptom severity in individuals with PTSD that can be explained with a harmonization of cortisol secretion. The presented study design introduces an intervention that can be implemented with little expenditure. It aims to provide a promising low-threshold and cost-effective treatment approach for the application in resource-poor settings.

Background:Latest research demonstrates a significant improvement in stress-related symptoms in psychological disorders as a result of exercise training (ET). Controlled clinical trials further validate the significance of ET by demonstrating lower salivary cortisol levels in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after intervention. A significant change in cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels can already be found after an 8–12-week ET program. The proposed study aims to investigate the impact of an 8-week ET on PTSD symptoms and changes in cortisol levels in a juvenile refugee sample from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at an Ugandan refugee settlement. It is the first to implement an ET intervention in a resource-poor, post-conflict setting.Methods/design:In a randomized controlled trial, 198 adolescent participants aged 13–16 years from the DRC who, suffer from PTSD, will be investigated. The participants are based at the Nakivale refugee settlement, an official refugee camp in Uganda, Africa, which is among the largest in the world. The participants will be randomized into an Exercise Training (ET )group with a maximum heart rate (HRmax) of > 60%, an Alternative Intervention (AI) group with low-level exercises, and a Waiting-list Control (WC) group. After the 8-week interventional phase, changes in cortisol awakening response (CAR) and DHEA in the ET group that correspond to an improvement in PTSD symptoms are expected that remain at follow-up after 3 months.Discussion:To date, there is no controlled and reliable longitudinal study examining the effects of an ET program on symptom severity in individuals with PTSD that can be explained with a harmonization of cortisol secretion. The presented study design introduces an intervention that can be implemented with little expenditure. It aims to provide a promising low-threshold and cost-effective treatment approach for the application in resource-poor settings. ; Currently, Henning Budde is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft); BU 1837/5-1, BU 1837/5-2. ; Peer Reviewed

Background: Latest research demonstrates a significant improvement in stress-related symptoms in psychological disorders as a result of exercise training (ET). Controlled clinical trials further validate the significance of ET by demonstrating lower salivary cortisol levels in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after intervention. A significant change in cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels can already be found after an 8-12-week ET program. The proposed study aims to investigate the impact of an 8-week ET on PTSD symptoms and changes in cortisol levels in a juvenile refugee sample from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at an Ugandan refugee settlement. It is the first to implement an ET intervention in a resource-poor, post-conflict setting. Methods/design: In a randomized controlled trial, 198 adolescent participants aged 13-16 years from the DRC who, suffer from PTSD, will be investigated. The participants are based at the Nakivale refugee settlement, an official refugee camp in Uganda, Africa, which is among the largest in the world. The participants will be randomized into an Exercise Training (ET) group with a maximum heart rate (HRmax) of > 60%, an Alternative Intervention (AI) group with low-level exercises, and a Waiting-list Control (WC) group. After the 8-week interventional phase, changes in cortisol awakening response (CAR) and DHEA in the ET group that correspond to an improvement in PTSD symptoms are expected that remain at follow-up after 3 months. Discussion: To date, there is no controlled and reliable longitudinal study examining the effects of an ET program on symptom severity in individuals with PTSD that can be explained with a harmonization of cortisol secretion. The presented study design introduces an intervention that can be implemented with little expenditure. It aims to provide a promising low-threshold and cost-effective treatment approach for the application in resource-poor settings.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is today the biggest public health challenge in the world (Park, 2020). The first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed on December 8, 2019, in Hubei province, China. From that day, in just over 3 months, the virus has spread to more than 177 countries/areas/territories around the world, with more than 266,073 confirmed cases and 11,184 deaths, according to WHO on March 21, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The most common clinical manifestations of COVID-19 are mild flu-like illness, potentially lethal acute respiratory distress syndrome, or fulminant pneumonia. As a result, numerous countries have decided to implement (some by government decrees, as well as martial laws) the establishment of mandatory social distance in a family environment, closing non-essential commercial environments, in an attempt to reduce the peak of the infection curve (Lewnard and Lo, 2020). We know that a large part of the world population is far from the minimum conditions of physical exercise recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) to improve the health component (Katzmarzyk et al., 2019). This fact would give important relevance to the level of physical activity exercised by the population throughout the day.However, once the extreme hypokinetic behavior is implemented as a result of the quarantine, a cycle of perverse events begins, making part of the population more vulnerable to the deleterious effects of acute and chronic diseases, including respiratory tract infections (Hall et al., 2020). In a recent position paper presented by Chen et al. (2020), the authors try to propose to the general population to continue exercising regardless of the current moment the world is living. In fact, as the authors mention, based on other researchers, "anything is better than nothing," and the sedentary lifestyle is something that should not be encouraged, i.e., any energy expenditure added to the routine of these people would be significant. Recommendations for the population to keep regularly active highlight only a minimum applicable technical basis, without presenting any suitable parameters for carrying them out. From the initial positioning of Chen et al. (2020), the ACSM via publication on the website of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (ACSM, 2020; WHO, 2020), as well as other institutions (ACSM, 2020; WHO, 2020), expanded the proposal about the practice of physical exercise to be performed at home. Tasks such as brisk walking, up and down stairs, dance, jump rope, yoga exercises, and bodyweight strength training are also recommended for indoor workout (Table 1). ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion