Psychological wellness, yoga and quality of life in patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders: A pilot study

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a serious psychiatric disorder characterized by positive symptoms, negative symptoms and neurocognitive deficits. The aim of this study was to estimate relationships between wellness, yoga and quality of life in patients affected by schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Participants were 30 patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia in care at the Rehabilitative Psychiatry and Research Villa Chiara Clinic in Mascalucia (Catania, Italy), after that randomly assigned to two groups. The first group followed the experimental treatment with sets of yoga exercises conducted by a yoga trainer and a psychiatrist or a clinical psychologist expert in yoga, while a second control group was treated with usual care. The results revealed a significant difference, before and after treatment, between the experimental group and the control group in quality of life.

In- and outpatient lifestyle interventions on diet and exercise and their effect on physical and psychological health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and first episode of psychosis

“…Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score 3.4.1.1. Change in PANSS total score at the end of intervention Twenty-two studies (Beebe et al, 2005;Brar et al, 2005;Caponnetto et al, 2019;Cordes et al, 2014;Curcic et al, 2017;Ikai et al, 2013Ikai et al, , 2014Ikai et al, , 2017Isuru et al, 2015;Kaltsatou et al, 2015;Kang et al, 2016;Kwon et al, 2006;Lin et al, 2015;McCreadie et al, 2005;Pajonk et al, 2010; T. W. Silva et al, 2015;Svatkova et al, 2015;Varambally et al, 2012;Visceglia and Lewis, 2011;Wang et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2008) considered change in PANSS total score at the end of the intervention. Out of these, eighteen were suitable for meta-analysis.…”

“…3.4.7.1. Change in PSS at the end of intervention There were two studies (Caponnetto et al, 2019;Ho et al, 2016) and three intervention groups examining change on perceived stress scale (PSS), as one of the studies (Ho et al, 2016) used two exercise groups (AE and tai-chi). Both had uncertain/high RoB.…”

“…Global functioning 3.5.9.1. Change in global functioning at the end of intervention Twelve studies explored global functioning measured by different scales: the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) (Bhatia et al, 2017;Ikai et al, 2017;Kaltsatou et al, 2015;Ryu et al, 2020;Speyer et al, 2016); the Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP) (Loh et al, 2016); the Social and Occupational Scale (SOFS) (Jayaram et al, 2013;Varambally et al, 2012); the Functional Assessment for Comprehensive Treatment of Schizophrenia (FACT-Sz) (Ikai et al, 2014(Ikai et al, , 2013; the World Health Organisation Disability Assessment (WHODAS) (Fisher et al, 2020) and the Mini-ICF-APP Social Functioning scale (Caponnetto et al, 2019). Ten of these studies, totalling eleven intervention groups, could be pooled by meta-analysis.…”

“…Effect sizes could not be computed for two studies: Bhatia et al (Bhatia et al, 2017)-yoga and AE in SCZ outpatients-and Caponnetto et al (Caponnetto et al, 2019)-yoga in SCZ inpatients-. Bhatia et al informed of no effect in neither of the two cohorts (yoga and exercise), whereas Caponnetto et al observed significantly improved functioning at the endpoint in the yoga group.…”

“…Eleven studies reported post-intervention effect on overall QoL (QoL), measured by different scales: the QoL Enjoyment and Satisfaction scale (Q-LES) (Kaltsatou et al, 2015), the World Health Organization QoL scale (WHOQOL) (Fisher et al, 2020;Ryu et al, 2020), the EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D) (Caponnetto et al, 2019;Holt et al, 2019;Ikai et al, 2017Ikai et al, , 2014Ikai et al, , 2013Lovell et al, 2014;Speyer et al, 2016), the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF36) (Silva et al, 2015) and the Manchester Short Assessment of QoL (MANSA) (Speyer et al, 2016). Out of these, nine studies (ten intervention groups) were suitable for meta-analysis.…”