“An analysis of exercise therapy for people with schizophrenia”

Schizophrenia is a mental disorder, which is characterised by abnormal social behaviour, delusions, cognitive challenges and hallucinations. Schizophrenia affects 2–4% of the population and is one of the world's leading causes of disability. In India, where about 1.1 billion people reside, the prevalence of schizophrenia is about 3/1000 individuals. An essential component of lifestyle modification is exercise. The importance of exercise is not adequately understood or appreciated by patients and mental health professionals alike. The objectives of these studies are to analyse the barriers to engage the people with schizophrenia and what are all the exercise interventions for them. Normative survey method was used to collect data from various sources regarding the exercise therapy for the people with schizophrenia. The study indicates exercise should be used as an adjutant to other interventions such as antipsychotic medication and psychological therapies. thus provide effective, evidence-based physical activity interventions for individuals suffering from serious mental illness like schizophrenia. Acute and chronic beneficial effects of exercises were reported with regard to several cognitive, behavioral, and socio-emotional functions. Further studies should be done to understand the impact of combining such interventions with traditional mental health treatment.