Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Sep 19, 2022; 12(9): 1258-1260
Published online Sep 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i9.1258
Beneficial for mental health, exercise more or less?
Wen-Jie Yan, Fan Zhang, Hui Ouyang, Chen-Qi Xing, Wei-Zhi Liu
Wen-Jie Yan, Fan Zhang, Hui Ouyang, Chen-Qi Xing, Wei-Zhi Liu, Lab for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Faculty of Psychology and Mental Health, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
Author contributions: Yan WJ and Zhang F contributed equally to this work; Yan WJ, Zhang F, Ouyang H, Xing CQ, and Liu WZ contributed equally in the production of this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare they do not have conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Wei-Zhi Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, Lab for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Faculty of Psychology and Mental Health, Naval Medical University, No. 800 Xiangyin Road, Shanghai 200433, China. 13024141970@163.com
Received: May 9, 2022
Peer-review started: May 9, 2022
First decision: June 11, 2022
Revised: June 21, 2022
Accepted: August 17, 2022
Article in press: August 17, 2022
Published online: September 19, 2022
Processing time: 134 Days and 0.8 Hours
Abstract

Regular physical activity may improve mental health during the pandemic by reducing inflammatory responses. However, overtraining or prolonged exercise training may adversely affect mental health.

Keywords: Physical activity; Exercise; Mental health; Runner’s high

Core Tip: Several empirical studies have provided evidence regarding coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)’s deleterious effects on people’s physical and mental well-being. Those who exercised frequently before the COVID-19 pandemic, such as professional athletes, may suffer from significant imbalance, which can be as uncomfortable as withdrawal symptoms. Further research should focus on groups with high physical activity levels.