Stroke Research & Therapy

Description

This study looks at how well Virtual Reality (VR)-based therapies work to help stroke patients with their depression and quality of life. Using the PICOS framework, research databases including the National Assembly Library (NAL), thoroughly examined to find pertinent studies for a meta-analysis. Two dissertations and five journal articles on depression and four dissertations and three journal papers on quality of life outcomes were chosen from the search results. The R program (version 4.0.5) meta-analysis package was used to perform the meta-analysis and determine the effect sizes for depression and quality of life. Based on a random-effects model, the results showed that depression had a strong effect, with a significant effect size of -0.82 (95% CI =-1.29, -0.35). In a similar vein, quality of life had an effect size of 1.12 (95% CI=0.56, 1.67), indicating a significant influence. These findings imply that VR-based therapies have a beneficial and significant impact on stroke patients' depression and quality of life. In sports and exercise psychology, the placebo effects an intriguing phenomena that has historically been researched in medical fields has drawn attention. The purpose of this study was to further this research by examining the effects of expectation manipulation on reported physical, affective and cognitive outcomes following exercise.

Anticipated cognitive

An online survey was used to gauge the anticipated cognitive, affective and physical advantages of a stretching program from 77 young individuals (mean age=29.84, SD=9.83). One of three conditions expectation-benefit, expectation-no benefit, or no expectation control was randomly assigned to them. Even though every group assessed the identical stretching exercise, they were shown movies and fake testimonials that were meant to distort their perceptions. According to the research, the group that expected benefits predicted higher cognitive and affective outcomes than the group that expected no benefits (p<0.001). Nonetheless, there were no appreciable variations seen in the groups' expectations for physical advantages. The testimonies, the movies and the participants' own past knowledge or experience with stretching all shaped the participants' expectations, according to the thematic analysis. These results advance our knowledge of expectation manipulation in exercise settings and offer advice to fitness experts on how to maximize the perceived advantages of fitness regimens. Physical exercise is known to be an effective way to promote emotional regulation in both mentally healthy individuals and those with mental disorders, particularly in the context of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), which is characterized by emotional dysregulation. Nevertheless, no studies have looked into how regular physical activity affects an adult's ability to control their emotions if they have BPD.

Physical activity

Using an app that asked users to rate their emotional state on an analog scale ranging from 0 to 100, the participants' emotions were tracked three times a day. The trial was divided into two 2- week control periods (A phases) and a 4-week intervention phase (B phase), during which participants worked out for one hour each week under supervision. Piecewise linear regression was used to assess the emotional data that was gathered and thematic analysis was used to look at the qualitative information from the interviews. Five of the seven BPD-afflicted women who finished the study took part in interviews. The results demonstrate the potential of exercise as a therapeutic intervention and provide insights into how regular physical activity may impact emotional regulation in BPD patients. To search this association, this study used an A-B-A single-case experimental design in conjunction with individual interviews and ecological momentary assessment.