New trial finds that frequent aerobic exercise reduces the hard-to-treat “negative symptoms” of schizophrenia

By Emma Young Aerobic exercise – any activity that gets your heart pumping harder – improves mood, anxiety and memory. It can help people with major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and anxiety disorder. Now there’s evidence, from a randomised controlled trial published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, that a programme of regular aerobic exercise also reduces psychopathology in people diagnosed with schizophrenia. And it seems to have a particular impact on so-called “negative” symptoms, such as apathy and loss of emotional feeling, which are not improved by standard drug treatments. “[W]hile antipsychotics [drug treatments] are essential in treating schizophrenia, interventions other than antipsychotic treatment…may be needed to achieve better outcomes,” write the authors of the new study, led by Peng-Wei Wang at Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital in Taiwan. The researchers recruited 62 patients, all of whom had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia at least a year ago, and whose antipsychotic medication dosage had been stable for at least three months. These participants were randomly allocated into either an aerobic exercise group (30 minutes of “vigorous” aerobic exercise, taking into account each participant’s maximum heart rate) or a control group who performed stretching exercises (25 minutes of flexibility, toning and balance exercises), with a goal of five sessions a week, for 12 weeks. Not all participants managed to stick t...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Psychosis Source Type: blogs