Physical activity in psychiatry: Current state and challenges: An online-survey on sports psychiatry in health professionals

Introduction: Physical activity (PA) shows beneficial effects for various mental illnesses, but exercise-prescription has not yet become routine practice in psychiatry. Therefore, this survey addresses attitudes and barriers towards exercise-prescription in health professionals. Methods: We conducted an anonymous online-survey among health professionals on the importance of PA in prevention and treatment of mental illness and perceived barriers as part of a larger survey on sports psychiatry. The survey was promoted by societies for sports psychiatry. Results: N = 310 health professionals from Switzerland (86.5%) and other countries responded to the online survey. Sixty percent were physicians (51.1% psychiatrists). Most respondents strongly agreed that PA plays an important role in prevention and treatment of mental (80.2%, 69.8%) and physical (84.5%, 72.0%) illness. Forty-six percent use PA in prevention and 59.4% in treatment of mental illness with lower proportions for physical illness (39.5%, 36.2%). Most mentioned barriers to the use of PA were "insufficient possibilities" in psychiatric institutions (34.8%) and "no reimbursement" (41.9%) in private practice. Participants working in private practice rated barriers in practice significantly higher than those from other workplaces. "No motivation" was found to be the most common barrier for patients (56.5%). PA was used most often for depression (39.5%) followed by substance use disorders (32.1%) and anxiety disorders (30.9%). Conclusions: Health professionals in Switzerland and some extent other European countries show a positive attitude towards the use of PA in mental illness. Current barriers, especially reimbursement in private practice should be addressed to improve prescription-rates of PA.