Exercising as hard as you can is better at relieving chronic anxiety than drugs or therapy, a new study has suggested.

Researchers in Sweden looked at how anxiety symptoms decreased over the course of 12 weeks as a result of both “moderate and strenuous” cardio and strength training.

Both exercise intensities effectively relieved symptoms of anxiety even when the disease was chronic, the researchers found.

The results suggest that more “simple” treatments are needed for anxiety than drugs and therapy, which are costly and sometimes ineffective for patients.

The new study was led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg and was published in Journal of Affective Disorders.

“A 12-week group training program proved effective for patients with anxiety disorders in primary care,” the authors say in their article.

“These results reinforce the view of physical exercise as an effective treatment and could be made more frequently available in clinical practice for people with anxiety problems.”

For the study, the researchers recruited 286 patients with anxiety syndrome from primary care in Gothenburg and the northern part of Halland County on Sweden’s west coast.

Their average age was 39 years and 70 percent were women. About half of the participants had lived with anxiety for more than 10 years.

Through the draw, participants were assigned group training sessions, either moderate or strenuous, for 12 weeks.

Both treatment groups had 60 minutes of training three times a week, under the guidance of a physiotherapist.

The severity of anxiety symptoms – which include nervousness, rapid breathing, increased heart rate and tremors – were then reported by participants.

The results show that their anxiety symptoms were significantly relieved even when the anxiety was a chronic condition, compared with a control group who received advice on physical activity according to public health recommendations.

Graph shows the difference between self-reported anxiety at baseline and after a 12-week training course (after intervention)

Most individuals in the treatment groups went from a baseline level of “moderate to high anxiety” to a low level of anxiety after the 12-week program.

For those who trained with relatively low intensity, the chance of improvement in anxiety symptoms increased by a factor of 3.62. The corresponding factor for those who trained with higher intensity was 4.88.

The participants had no knowledge of the physical training or the counseling that people outside their own group received.

– There was a significant intensity trend for improvement – that is, the more intensively they trained, the more their anxiety symptoms improved, says study author Malin Henriksson at the University of Gothenburg.

Today’s standard treatments for anxiety are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), usually with sessions with a therapist a couple of times a week, and psychotropic drugs.

But CBT can be expensive and psychotropic drugs often have side effects, such as weight gain, dizziness, fatigue and even heart problems.

In addition, patients with anxiety often do not respond to medical treatment. Long waiting times for CBT can also worsen the forecast.

– Doctors in primary care need treatments that are individualized, have few side effects and are easy to prescribe, says study author Maria Åberg.

“The model with 12 weeks of physical training, regardless of intensity, represents an effective treatment that should be made available in primary care more often for people with anxiety problems.”

Previous studies of physical exercise in depression have shown clear improvement in symptoms, the team points out.

However, a clear picture of how people with anxiety are affected by exercise has been lacking so far.

One of the limitations of the study was the use of self-assessment measures, which entails the risk of an underestimation or overestimation of the symptoms.

Refusing to admit something is wrong can be a problem for people with anxiety, according to the US Mayo Clinic.