Neurocognitive dysfunction is a critical target symptom of schizophrenia treatment. A positive correlation between physical activity level and neurocognitive function has been reported in healthy individuals, but it is unclear whether such a correlation exists in patients with schizophrenia and whether the relationship is different according to inpatients or outpatients. This study aimed to examine the differences in the correlations between physical activity and multiple neurocognitive domains in inpatients and outpatients with schizophrenia and obtain suggestions for further study to facilitate this field.
Methods
Twenty-nine patients with schizophrenia were examined (16 inpatients and 13 outpatients, 56.0 ± 11.4 years of age). Current symptoms were assessed using the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale and neurocognitive functions using Cognitrax, which yields a composite neurocognitive index (NCI) and 11 domain scores. After testing, participants wore an HJA-750C accelerometer for one week to measure physical activity levels and durations. Partial correlation analyses were performed between exercise and cognitive parameters.
Results
In the outpatient group, higher physical activity was associated with faster Motor and Psychomotor Speeds in outpatients. However, higher physical activity was associated with lower overall NCI, Attention score, and Memory scores in inpatients.
Conclusion
Although higher physical activity was associated with better neurocognitive functions of outpatients, in inpatients with non-remitted schizophrenia, higher physical activity was associated with worsening of several cognitive domains. In a future study examining the relationship between physical activity and neurocognitive function for facilitating this research field, separation between inpatients and outpatients are needed because the relationship is different between inpatients and outpatients.
I suspect @firemonkey 's verbal intelligence ranks pretty high, besides being a native speaker. I have a hard time digesting some medical “slang”, but with the help of google translate and wikipedia, my understanding advances bit by bit.
My verbal intelligence is high/very high but I am not the best when it comes to scientific/technical language.Science was actually a very weak subject for me at school.
I tend to assume that some will be better with such than I am, and post accordingly.
I’m not certain how physical activity would benefit those with sz. Why would someone with sz want to exercise? Exercise is for people who care about life and have a reason to exist. We, on the other hand, die 20 yeas early just from the meds alone so what is the point?
You need to take a statistics course to understand what these guys are talking about, I’m terrible at math so I have always put it off. So i just read it and act like i understand the statistics so I can feel smart. Its sort of like im going through the motions, even though i understand like 60-70% percent of whats going on I know for certain that most of what they say isn’t of any benefit, seriously, there is practically no hope for us. I’m waiting anxiously for the big watershed discovery in schizophrenia treatment, sometimes I think I’ll be waiting forever.