91 THE EFFECT OF SPORTS INTERVENTION ON SYMPTOM REHABILITATION OF SCHIZOPHRENIA PATIENTS
Authors: Sun Feng 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Schizophrenia is a common chronic psychological disorder characterized by brain dysfunction. The patient mainly presents with cognitive and behavioral abnormalities. In recent years, exercise intervention as an adjuvant therapy has received widespread attention. Related studies have shown that moderate physical exercise can improve the physical and mental health of patients and enhance their quality of life. The potential benefits of exercise for patients with schizophrenia have been validated in multiple clinical studies, including relief of depressive symptoms and reduction of anxiety. Based on this, the study mainly explored the impact of sports intervention on the rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia.

Methods
The study selected 100 patients admitted to a certain hospital between April 2023 and January 2024, all of whom met the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia. After undergoing a stage of antipsychotic medication treatment, all patients scored below 45 points on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and their pre-exercise physical and laboratory test results were normal. The study randomly divided patients into an experimental group and a control group, with 50 people in each group. Both groups took antipsychotic medication as required. The experimental group added sports training on this basis, including jogging, brisk walking, skipping rope, etc. Train 3 times a week for 2 hours each time, and the intervention lasts for 12 weeks. After the intervention, the PANSS scale was used again to evaluate the patient’s clinical symptoms.

Results
According to the comparison of PANSS scores, the experimental group showed a significant decrease in the scores of positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive symptoms after treatment (P&lt;0.05), while the symptom changes in the control group were not significant. Specifically, the positive symptom score of the experimental group decreased from 25.3 ± 4.2 points before treatment to 17.1 ± 3.6 points after treatment, the negative symptom score decreased from 24.5 ± 5.3 points before treatment to 18.4 ± 4.1 points after treatment, and the cognitive symptom score decreased from 19.5 ± 3.4 points to 15.9 ± 4.2 points. The positive symptom scores of the control group before and after treatment were 24.8 ± 4.1 points and 24.3 ± 4.0 points, the negative symptom scores were 23.7 ± 5.0 points and 23.5 ± 5.2 points, and the cognitive symptom scores were 19.2 ± 3.8 points and 19.1 ± 3.7 points, respectively. There was no significant difference in these changes (P&gt;0.05). In addition, there was a significant difference (P&lt;0.05) between the two groups after treatment.

Discussion
The research results indicate that physical exercise intervention can significantly improve the symptoms, cognitive function, emotional state, and quality of life of patients with schizophrenia. Exercise intervention has played a positive role in the overall recovery of patients by alleviating anxiety and depression symptoms, improving negative symptoms and cognitive function, promoting their daily activity ability. Sports intervention is an extremely effective adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia. Future research can explore in depth the effects of different types of exercise, intervention intensities, and durations on the rehabilitation of patients with schizophrenia.