Anxiety disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders observed currently. It is a normal adaptive response to stress that allows coping with adverse situations. Nevertheless, when anxiety becomes excessive or disproportional in relation to the situation that evokes it or when there is not any special object directed at it, such as an irrational dread of routine stimuli, it becomes a disabling disorder and is considered to be pathological. The traditional treatment used is medication and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, however, last years the practice of physical exercise, specifically aerobic exercise, has been investigated as a new nonpharmacological therapy for anxiety disorders. Thus, the aim of this article was to provide information on research results and key chains related to the therapeutic effects of aerobic exercise compared with other types of interventions to treat anxiety, which may become a useful clinical application in a near future. Researches have shown the effectiveness of alternative treatments, such as physical exercise, minimizing high financial costs and minimizing side effects. The sample analyzed, 66.8% was composed of women and 80% with severity of symptoms anxiety as moderate to severe. The data analyzed in this review allows us to claim that alternative therapies like exercise are effective in controlling and reducing symptoms, as 91% of anxiety disorders surveys have shown effective results in treating. However, there is still disagreement regarding the effect of exercise compared to the use of antidepressant symptoms and cognitive function in anxiety, this suggests that there is no consensus on the correct intensity of aerobic exercise as to achieve the best dose-response, with intensities high to moderate or moderate to mild.

Depression is a common and disabling disease that affects over 100 million people worldwide and can have a significant impact on physical and mental health, reducing their quality of life. Thus, the aim of this article was to provide information on research results and key chains related to the therapeutic effects of chronic aerobic exercise compared with other types of interventions to treat depression, which may become a useful clinical application in a near future. Researches have shown the effectiveness of alternative treatments, such as physical exercise, minimizing high financial costs and minimizing side effects. In this review, the data analyzed allows us to claim that alternative therapies, such as exercise, are effective on controlling and reducing symptoms. 69.3% of the studies that investigated the antidepressant effects of exercise on depressive were significant, and the other 30.7% of the studies improved only in general physiological aspects, such as increased oxygen uptake, increased use of blood glucose and decreased body fat percentage, with no improvement on symptoms of depression. From the sample analyzed, 71.4% was composed of women, and regarding the severity of symptoms, 85% had mild to moderate depression and only 15% had moderate to severe depression. However, there is still disagreement regarding the effect of exercise compared to the use of antidepressants in symptomatology and cognitive function in depression, this suggests that there is no consensus on the correct intensity of aerobic exercise as to achieve the best dose-response, with intensities high to moderate or moderate to mild.

Introduction: Mental health literacy refers to the knowledge and abilities needed to promote mental health, and valid and comprehensive measures are needed to assess it. In Portugal, there are few validated measures to assess knowledge about the factors that promote positive mental health. Objective: To translate and culturally adapt the MHPK-10 to the Portuguese population. Material and Methods: The sample was recruited through a nonprobabilistic method, for convenience, in several institutions of the Porto Metropolitan Area and through an online questionnaire. The validation included the translation and cultural adaptation of the MHPK-10 original version and the analysis of the psychometric properties: reliability—test-retest and internal consistency, content validity, construct validity and criterion validity. Results: The sample consisted of 1,728 individuals aged between 14 and 95 years. The internal consistency value is reasonable (α= 0.79), and the test-retest values (r=0.72) support the reliability of the instrument. The factor analysis forced to a factor resulted in satisfactory values, explaining a variance of 35.92%. In the criterion validity, a low correlation was obtained (r=0.32). Conclusion: Psychometric properties appear to be reasonable, although additional studies are needed. The present work is a positive contribution to the validation of MHPK-10.

Introduction: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality based intervention in processing speed and working memory in students with ADHD symptomatology.Methods: A randomized experimental study was conducted, with a sample consisting of 25 adult participants recruited from the Escola Superior de Saúde do Politécnico do Porto. The participants were allocated into two groups: a passive control group and an intervention group that completed 10 sessions using virtual reality-based games from the Enhance VR app. The intervention included 6 games: Whack-a-mole, Shuffled, Assembly, React, Memory Wall, and Maestro. The participants underwent pre- and post-intervention evaluations using the Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS) and the Sequence of Letters and Numbers and Spatial Location of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - 3rd Edition - WAIS-III. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize the sample and a mixed ANOVA was used to test the effectiveness of the intervention.Results: There was an improvement in the results of processing speed in the group exposed to the intervention (p < 0.001) and the value of the interaction between intervention and time was also significant (p = 0.004). There were no statistically significant differences between the participants’ working memory in the different variables under study, except for the values of the Spatial location test in the experimental group that improved relative to the initial assessment (p = 0.034).Discussion: A virtual reality cognitive training intervention resulted in improvements in the processing speed measures, which were not found in the control group. Although we cannot make the same conclusions regarding working memory, these results suggest that the VR intervention resulted in progress in the experimental group, possibly influenced by the intervention, which should be verified in future studies with longer interventions.

Portugal has Europe’s second-highest prevalence of psychiatric illnesses, and this is the reason why mental health literacy (MHL) and stigma should be addressed. This study aimed to investigate the mental health literacy and stigma levels among different groups of people from Póvoa de Varzim, a municipality in the north of Portugal. Students, retired people, and professionals (education, social, and healthcare fields) were recruited using a convenience sample from June to November 2022. Participants’ MHL levels were evaluated using the Mental Health Promoting Knowledge Scale (MHPK), Mental Health Literacy Measure (MHLM) and Mental Health Knowledge Schedule (MAKS). Stigma levels were evaluated using Community Attitudes towards Mental Illness (CAMI) and the Reported and Intended Behaviour Scale (RIBS). A total of 928 questionnaires were filed. The respondents included 65.70% of women, a mean age of 43.63 (±26.71) years and 9.87 (±4.39) years of school education. MHL increased with age, education level and was higher in women (p < 0.001). A higher level of MHL was seen in health professionals (p < 0.001). Findings revealed that older people stigmatized people with mental illness more (p < 0.001), and the female gender stigmatize less (p < 0.001). In addition, results showed that stigma decreased with higher mental health literacy (r between 0.11 and 0.38; p < 0.001). To conclude, specific campaigns that promote mental health literacy should be tailored to specific profiles within this population to address those that have more stigma.