Effects of Daily Physical Exercise on the Psychiatric State of Institutionalized Geriatric Mental Patients

Nine male geriatric mental patients exercised daily, Monday through Friday for a total of 12 weeks. Exercise was in the form of walking on a motor-driven treadmill at workloads which elicited 70% of the age adjusted, predicted maximal heart rate. Eight patients served as controls and received similar social stimulation as did the experimental patients. All patients were physiologically evaluated on treadmill and bicycle ergometer stress tests administered before and immediately following the 12 wk. training period. Psychiatric evaluation was in the form of a series of four psychological tests also administered pre- and posttraining. Results of the posttraining evaluation indicate a physiological training effect experienced by experimental patients as evidenced by significantly decreased heart rate and systolic blood pressure responses to treadmill and bicycle ergometer constant workload tests. Accompanying the physiological training effect was a significant change on two of the four psychological tests and an observable change in the overt behavior of experimental patients. Similar physiological and psychological changes did not occur in the control group.