Effect of Regular Aerobic Exercise on Daily Life Activities and Moods of the Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury: Two Cases

Abstract

Limitations in daily living activities, depression, and anxiety symptoms may be present in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) at different levels based on the severity of the injury. Regular aerobic exercise is a fairly effective treatment approach to improving neuropsychiatric symptoms and physical performance of patients with TBI. Beck Depression Index, Beck Anxiety Index, Barthel Index, neuropsychiatric clinical findings, and motor functions were assessed before and after a 30-min regular exercise program, three times a week for 12 weeks in two patients with severe TBI having neuropsychiatric complications due to injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. Clinical follow-up showed a substantial improvement in depression and daily life activity scales of both patients. Regular aerobic exercise programs are highly effective and inexpensive rehabilitation methods for reducing depression levels and increasing independence in daily life activities of patients with severe TBI.

Efectos de tres tipos de ejercicio físico sobre los niveles de actividad física y el perfil de estados de ánimo en personal administrativo de una institución de educación superior (Effects of three types of physical exercise on the levels of physical activity and the profile of mood states in administrative personnel of a higher education institution)

“…En cuanto los estados de ánimo, el ejercicio físico ha mostrado efectos positivos agudos y crónicos en población aparentemente saludable (Bernstein & McNally, 2016;Crush, Frith, & Loprinzi, 2018;Michishita et al, 2017), con antecedentes de trastornos depresivos o lesiones cerebrales traumáticas (Yakşi, & Uyar, 2017), (Bartholomew, Morrison, & Ciccolo, 2005). Lo anterior, se puede explicar porque al realizar esta práctica, se presentan procesos fisiológicos, como la neuromodulación de neurotransmisores excitatorios (catecolaminas, serotonina, entre otros) e inhibitorios (beta endorfinas, dopamina, etc) y producción de hormonas (insulina, glucagón, cortisol) que regulan la respuesta al estrés y por lo tanto generan sensación de bienestar (Mikkelsen, Stojanovska, Polenakovic, Bosevski, & Apostolopoulos, 2017).…”