Effect of sport intervention on positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenic patient at al-Rashad mental hospital

الملخص EN

Schizophrenia, is a chronic mental disorder.

The treatment strategies include medication and many types of psychotherapy, but these can have limited effects in the most affected patients.

Sport therapy may provide a mean of improving mental health among people with schizophrenia.

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of sport intervention on the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) of the inpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Subjects and methods of study was conducted at AL Rashad Hospital in the city of Baghdad for 6 months.

It is a single blind randomized controlled trial.

100 male patients between the age of 18-59 years with a diagnosis of schizophrenia according to DSM-5 criteria for at least 2 years duration prior to the beginning of the study were randomly included.

The study group underwent training sessions followed by competitions in games need interaction.

Results show that total PANSS scores for the study group were significantly lower than those for the controls group, comparisons also showed that sport intervention affords significant advantages on general psychosocial functioning.

Conclusions participation in sport may reduce the psychiatric symptoms in patients with chronic schizophrenia, less relapse and less consuming of different antipsychotic medications.