Acute Effects of Physical Exercise in Patients with Borderline Personality Disorder

NCT05246527 | Recruiting

• 1 other identifier: ExBPD
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 120
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The aim of the proposed project is to investigate the effects of a single session of physical exercise on stress regulation, cognitive and emotional functioning, and associated neurophysiological processes (saliva and blood samples) in patients with borderline personality disorder. A further aim is to identify the optimal exercise intensity (moderate vs. high intensity). The investigatiors expect that acute exercise will lead to positive effects on behavioral and biomarker level.

Conditions

Borderline Personality Disorder

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• change in cognitive interference

  classical color-word Stroop task: reaction time difference between congruent and incongruent stimuli, difference between pre- and post-intervention is compared between exercise and control condition

  directly before and 10 minutes after exercise and control condition

• change in subjective stress perception

  Trier social stress test: subjective stress level (visual analogue scale rated from 0=noperceived stress to 9=highest perceived stress), changes between pre-stress and post-stress are compared between exercise and control condition

  stress test 90 minutes after exercise and control condition, subjective stress scale are collected before stress test and 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after stress test

• change in cortisol levels

  Trier social stress test: cortisol levels measured in saliva; changes between pre-stress and post-stress (cortisol peak expected at 20 minutes after stress test) are compared between exercise and control condition

  stress test 90 minutes after exercise and control condition, saliva samples are collected before stress test and 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after stress test

Secondary Outcomes (4)

• change in emotional interference

  directly before and 15 minutes after exercise and control condition

• change in affect

  directly before and 5 minutes after exercise and control condition, and before stress test and 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after stress test

• change in alpha-amylase

  saliva samples are collected before stress test and 0, 10, 20, and 30 minutes after stress test

• change in biomarkers

  directly before and 5 minutes after exercise and control condition

Study Arms (2)

Exercise

EXPERIMENTAL

30 min of cycling on a stationary ergometer, guided by a video of a professional cycling instructor. * Half of the patients (n=30) and their respective matched healthy controls (n=30) will perform moderate-intensity exercise: continuous cycling at 64-76% of the individual HRmax). * The other half will perform a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocol: 5 min warm-up phase, followed by bursts of high-intensity cycling interspersed with varied recovery times (21 min in total), 4 min cool-down. Excluding warm-up and cool-down, intensities will remain \>77% of individual HRmax during the whole routine. Heart rate will be continuously recorded using a chest strap heart rate monitor and monitored by the patients themselves and the experimenter.

Behavioral: Physical Exercise

Control condition

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

30 min of watching a documentary about the benefits of physical activity on health. Heart rate will be recorded also during the control condition.

Behavioral: Control Intervention

Interventions

Physical Exercise BEHAVIORAL

30 min of cycling on an ergometer, moderate or high intensity

Exercise

Control Intervention BEHAVIORAL

30 min of watching a movie

Control condition

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 50 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• estimated verbal intelligence quotient \>80 (MWT-B; Lehrl 2005)
• patients: diagnosis of borderline personality disorder according to DSM-5

You may not qualify if:

• neurological disorders
• health conditions interfering with exercise safety, e.g. coronary heart disease
• visual impairments that may interfere with performance of the cognitive tasks
• endocrine disorders, e.g. hyperthyreosis or diabetes mellitus;
• following psychiatric disorders: psychosis or affective disorders with psychotic symptoms, schizophrenia, substance abuse or dependence, autism spectrum disorders, anorexia nervosa;
• healthy controls: BPD, intake of psychotropic drugs

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital, Bonn: lead

Study Sites (1)

University Hospital Bonn

Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, 53127, Germany

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Borderline Personality Disorder

Interventions

Exercise

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Personality Disorders; Mental Disorders

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Motor Activity; Movement; Musculoskeletal Physiological Phenomena; Musculoskeletal and Neural Physiological Phenomena

Central Study Contacts

Aylin Mehren, Dr.

CONTACT

+4922828731370; aylin.mehren@ukbonn.de

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: TREATMENT
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Dr., Principal Investigator

Model Details: Exercise condition: cycle on an ergometer with moderate or high intensity Control condition: watching a movie

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 27, 2022
• First Posted: February 18, 2022
• Study Start: February 8, 2022
• Primary Completion: December 31, 2025
• Study Completion: December 31, 2025
• Last Updated: December 11, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-12

Locations

DE (1)