Rock climbing and acute emotion regulation in patients with major depressive disorder in the context of a psychological inpatient treatment: a controlled pilot trial

Abstract

Background

Major depressive disorder is characterized by deficits in emotion regulation. This study examined associations between rock climbing and acute emotion regulating effects in patients with major depression.

Patients and methods

In a nonrandomized, controlled study, 40 major depressive disorder inpatients were assigned to either a climbing session (n=20) or a relaxation session (n=20). Positive and negative affect, depressiveness, and coping emotions were assessed immediately before and after the session.

Results

Mixed analyses of variance and covariance revealed significant time × group interaction effects for all assessed outcomes (p≤0.012): positive affect and coping emotions significantly increased and negative affect and depressiveness significantly decreased after the climbing session (1.04≤ Cohen’s d ≤1.30), in contrast to a relaxation session (0.16≤ Cohen’s d ≤0.36).

Conclusion

The results show that rock climbing is associated with acute emotion regulatory effects. These findings have to be replicated with a randomized design, and future research should pay attention to possible mechanisms of rock climbing in regard to emotion regulation.

Keywords:

• physical activity
• controlled trial
• relaxation
• inpatient treatment

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the rock climbing team of the Department of General Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the University Hospital of the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany, in particular, Alfred Mollenhauer, for their enthusiastic work.

Disclosure

The authors report they did not receive any funding for this work and have no conflicts of interest in this work.