Can mental health care get you a better body?

26 Jul 2017

26 July 2017

The first research study, led by St John of God Richmond Hospital researcher Andrew Chen, is monitoring the physical activity levels of people in a mental health rehabilitation hospital and measuring this against their mental and physical health outcomes using the Simple Physical Activity Questionnaire (SIMPAQ).

Andrew’s second study, Global Assessment of Function (GAF), is investigating the relationship between fitness levels and the mental, social and physical wellbeing of people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“These studies are being run to contribute to the narrative around the role of exercise as a part of routine care and treatment for people experiencing mental illness, especially in a clinical/hospital setting,” Andrew said.

“We also believe it is important to have a validated tool that measures physical activity accurately and to encourage exercise to be incorporated and utilised as part of routine care in mental health. This is a vision we want to see become a reality.”

Andrew, who is working alongside mental health researchers Zac Steel, Simon Rosenbaum and Kirrily Gould, said while evidence shows exercise was beneficial in managing some mental health conditions, there was no data to show whether different levels of activity produced different results.

“We’re looking to run the GAF study to show the importance of aerobic fitness and function. We want to assess if higher levels of activity result in higher levels of function,” he said.

“If this is conclusive we will be able to further support the role of exercise as treatment but to also improve the function, sense of wellbeing and quality of life for people experiencing mental illness.”

Andrew said having a validated tool such as the SIMPAQ to measure someone’s physical activity was also important to measure progression and help exercise become a normal part of their life.

“We have also come to understand that mental disorders aren’t just mental, they have systemic effects on the body,” Andrew said.

“People with mental illnesses face a 15-20 year reduction in life expectancy compared with the general population, and they face a higher risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, with a high percentage of people with mental illnesses dying from cardiovascular disease.

“Therefore the body and the mind need to be treated simultaneously, and not separately when it comes to treatment, and exercise seems to be a highly appropriate mode of treatment to address both the body and mind,” Andrew said.

The GAF study is currently recruiting, if you are interested in participating contact:

Andrew Chen
Kirrily Gould