12-Week Intense Exercise Program Feasible, Effective for Panic Disorder

FRIDAY, Feb. 13, 2026 (HealthDay News) — For patients with panic disorder (PD), a 12-week brief intermittent intense exercise (BIE) program is feasible and more effective than Jacobson”s relaxation training (RT) for reducing panic symptom severity, according to a study published online Feb. 8 in Frontiers in Psychiatry.

Ricardo Willian Muotri, Ph.D., from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, and colleagues examined the feasibility and efficacy of a BIE program compared with RT in treatment-free patients with PD in a prospective randomized clinical trial involving 72 sedentary adults with PD. Participants were randomly allocated to a 12-week BIE program or RT (37 and 35 individuals, respectively); all received identical placebo medication. The Panic Agoraphobia Scale (PAS) score was assessed at baseline and weeks 6, 12, and 24 as the primary outcome.

The researchers found that over time, both groups improved, but for PAS scores, a significant group-by-time interaction favored BIE. PAS scores were lower in the BIE group at week 12 than in RT and the difference was maintained at week 24. BIE also yielded fewer panic attacks at follow-up, as well as lower Hamilton Depression Rating Scale scores.

“Health care professionals can adopt brief intermittent intense exercise as a natural and low-cost interoceptive exposure strategy,” Muotri said in a statement. “It doesn”t need to take place in a clinical setting, so that exposure to the symptoms of a panic attack is brought closer to the patient”s daily life. It could also be integrated into care models for anxiety and depression disorders.”

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