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A 20-week program of resistance or concurrent exercise improves symptoms of schizophrenia: results of a blind,
Bruna Andrade E Silva1, Ricardo C Cassilhas2, Cecília Attux3
1Department of Nutrition, Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
Objective:
To evaluate the effects of 20 weeks of resistance and concurrent training on psychotic and depressive symptoms, quality of life outcomes, and serum IGF-1, IGFBP-3, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) concentrations in patients with schizophrenia.
Methods:
In this blind, randomized controlled clinical trial, 34 patients with schizophrenia were assigned to one of three groups: control (CTRL, n=13), resistance exercise (RESEX, n=12), or concurrent exercise (CONCEX, n=9). Symptoms, quality of life, strength, and other variables were assessed.
Results:
A significant time-by-group interaction was found for the RESEX and CONCEX groups on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score for disease symptoms (p = 0.007), positive symptoms (p = 0.003), and on the arm extension one-repetition maximum (1RM) test (p = 0.016). In addition, significant improvements on negative symptoms (p = 0.027), on the role-physical domain of the Short Form-36 Health Survey (p = 0.019), and on the chest press 1RM test (p = 0.040) were observed in the RESEX group. No changes were observed for the other variables investigated.
Conclusions:
In this sample of patients with schizophrenia, 20 weeks of resistance or concurrent exercise program improved disease symptoms, strength, and quality of life. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01674543.
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