Abstract

The effect of regular aerobic exercise on both positive and negative symptoms of male patients with chronic Schizophrenia: A double blinded study

Author(s):Hossein Namdar areshtanab, Hossein Ebrahimi, Ali Reza Farnam, Asghar Mohammadpoorasl, Bahram Jamali and Shahram Piri

Nowadays in different communities, sport is being used as a mean to prevent diseases, improve health and have a sense of well-being. The evidences show that sport improves mental health, self-confidence, cognitive performance and on the other hand it decreases anxiety and depression. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of regular aerobic exercise on both positive and negative symptoms of male patients with chronic Schizophrenia who are hospitalized at RAZI Psychiatric hospital, TABRIZ, IRAN. The present study, which has been done on 68 male patients with chronic Schizophrenia, is a double-blinded clinical trial study. Randomly chosen samples have been categorized in two groups of case(34 patients) and control (34 patients). The case group samples participated in the designed exercise program during 24sessions over 8 weeks, 11hours in total. The positive and negative symptoms for both groups were assessed in two steps before starting the exercise program and also after that through Standard Anderson Positive and Negative questionnaire (SAPS.SANS). The data of both groups were compared using statistical tests, T-test, paired t-test , and Chi-square test. The results demonstrated that there is no significant relationship between before intervention in terms of positive and negative symptoms of disease (P>0.05). Furthermore, the results indicated that there is a significant statistical difference between the average total score of positive and negative symptoms of the disease in both case and control group after intervention (P<0.05).Health system officials and managers can implement programs and solutions for creating regular aerobic exercises for patients with Schizophrenia in order to reduce disease symptoms and improve the rate of recovery in patients with chronic mental disorders.

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