Exercise significantly reduces suicide attempts

Key points to remember:

• Exercise was effective in decreasing suicide attempts, but not ideation.
• According to the researchers, primary care providers should prescribe exercise more often for patients with physical or mental illnesses.

Exercise significantly reduced suicide attempts, the researchers said, emphasizing the importance of prescribing exercise to patients with mental illnesses.

Previous research has indicated that exercise is beneficial for mental health management. Actually, a recent umbrella review found that all modes of physical activity were effective in improving both anxiety and depression and should be used more frequently for mental health management. But little is known about how exercise might affect suicidal tendencies.

Nicolas Fabiano, MD, a resident of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa, told Healio that “people with mental or physical illnesses are at an increased risk of suicide compared to the general population.”

“As suicide rates are on the rise, it is important that we find methods to counter this,” he said. “I can personally speak to the beneficial cognitive and physical aspects of regular exercise. No matter how busy the residence is, I maintain a regular exercise routine that has improved my mood, lowered my anxiety levels, and dramatically improved my school results.

To better understand how exercise may affect suicidal ideation or risk, Fabiano and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 randomized controlled trials with 1,021 participants. Their findings were recently published in the Affective Disorders Diary.

The researchers noted that depression was the most common condition included in the review, at 59%, and aerobic exercise was the most common form of exercise studied, at 53%. Other forms of exercise included mind-body (17.6%) and strength training (17.6%).

Fabiano and his colleagues found that physical exercise significantly reduced suicide attempts (OR = 0.23; CI 0.09-0.67). However, there was no significant decrease in mortality or suicidal ideation between the control and exercise groups (standardized mean difference = -1.09; 95% CI, -3.08 to 0.9 ).

“However, this lack of associations was likely due to the limited number and sample size of existing studies,” Fabiano said. “As more randomized controlled trials are conducted in this area, I expect we will see a decrease in suicidal ideation and suicide deaths due to sample sizes.”

These results, Fabiano said, “demonstrate that exercise can be an effective way to reduce suicidal behaviors in people with mental or physical illnesses.”

A common misconception among primary care providers, Fabiano said, “is that patients, especially those with mental or physical illnesses, are not willing or motivated enough to participate in an exercise regimen,” which which has led providers to under-prescribe exercise to those with physical or mental illnesses.

“In our study, there was no significant difference in dropouts between people randomized to exercise compared to inactive controls. This finding demonstrates that people with mental or physical illness are able to adhere to exercise regimens,” he said. “As a result, we recommend that providers not be afraid to prescribe exercise for patients with mental or physical illness.”

Fabiano and colleagues wrote that their review “was a crucial first step in understanding the influence that exercise may have on suicide in people with mental or physical illness”, but called for better randomized controlled trials. quality that “explore the effect of exercise in a variety of mental and physical health conditions in order to get a more comprehensive view.