Exercise for the compulsive exercisers? An exploratory study in adolescent inpatients with anorexia nervosa

Objective: This study aimed to explore whether exercise produced acute psychological benefits for adolescent inpatients receiving treatment for anorexia nervosa (AN). Specifically, the study examined whether a supervised inpatient exercise programme resulted in negative or positive affective changes over time, and if the participant’s reported level of compulsive exercise influenced such changes. Method: Forty-seven adolescent female inpatients with a DSM-5 diagnosis of AN completed a measure of compulsive exercise at admission to an eating-disorder inpatient programme. Participants routinely attended physiotherapy sessions (exercise condition) and school lessons (school condition) throughout their admission, and completed visual analogue scales assessing anxious, depressed, and positive affect immediately prior to and after both conditions. Results: Participants reported a significant decrease in anxious and depressed affect, and an increase in positive affect after the exercise condition compared to the school condition. Participants with higher levels of compulsive exercise features reported significantly greater decreases in anxious affect following exercise. Discussion: The current study provides promising results in terms of the acute psychological benefits supervised exercise can offer adolescent inpatients with AN. Research and clinical efforts are required to develop standardised treatment guidelines for exercise programmes and the management of compulsive exercise in this population during active treatment.