Sammanfattning
The well known preventive effect of physical activity for lifestyle-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and diabetes is one of many reasons why physical activity should be recommended to patients suffering from stress-related symptoms. Symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as levels of perceived stress are also influenced by physical activity. This strengthens the rationale of recommending physical activity to all patients seeking care for stress-related problems, and the importance of long-lasting lifestyle change should be emphasized. Physical activity and/or exercise is also considered an important part of multimodal treatment primarily used to treat patients with exhaustion disorder. Randomized studies are lacking, but there is some evidence that the main symptoms, exhaustion and cognitive failure, are positively affected by physical activity.