Soccer practice as an add-on treatment in the management of individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia

Abstract

Physical activity is an important aspect of good health for everyone; it is even more important for psychiatric patients who usually live an unhealthy lifestyle. In recent years, there has been growing focus on the use of soccer as a vehicle to improve the health of subjects with severe mental illness. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of soccer practice on the self-reported health quality of life (SRHQL) and sports performance (SP) in psychotic subjects. Eighteen male patients with diagnosis of schizophrenia were randomized into either a trained (TG) or a control group (CG). The TG was trained for 12 weeks using two soccer training sessions per week. The CG did not perform any regular sports activity during the experimental period. Anthropometric measurements, SRHQL, personal time records in a 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball were evaluated before and after the experimental period. SRHQL was assessed using Short Form-12 questionnaire measuring physical and mental component summary scores. After the training period, the TG showed a relevant decrease by 4.6% in bodyweight (BW) and body mass index compared to baseline. Conversely, the CG showed an increased BW and body mass index by 1.8% from baseline to posttest. Moreover, after 12 weeks we found that control patients increased their BW significantly when compared to trained patients (Δ = 5.4%; P < 0.05). After the training period, comparing the baseline TG’s Short Form-12-scores to posttest results, we found an improvement of 10.5% and 10.8% in physical component summary and mental component summary, respectively. In addition, performances on the 30 meter sprint test and slalom test running with a ball in the TG improved significantly (P < 0.01) from baseline to posttest when compared to CG. Soccer practice appears able to improve psychophysical health in individuals with diagnosis of schizophrenia. Indeed, our study demonstrated that programmed soccer physical activity could reduce antipsychotic medication-related weight gain and improve SRHQL and sports performance in psychotic subjects.

Incremental-Entity Personal Conceptions of Intelligence and Individualism-Collectivism in Italian Students

“…Also students oriented in terms of dynamic conceptions of intelligence showed the greatest Horizontal-Collectivism in the School and in the Peer Group contexts. We can conjecture that this result is mainly consistent with characteristics of peers groups such as socialization opportunities, cooperating with others, respecting rules, experiencing personal achievement by obtaining the encouragement of peers (Battaglia, Alesi, Inguglia, Roccella, Caramazza, Bellafiore & Palma, 2013). Similarly, every collectivist sees himself as necessarily included in the group.…”

A systematic review of the benefits of physical therapy within a multidisciplinary care approach for people with schizophrenia: An update

“…Two studies (Oertel-Knöchel et al, 2014;Takahashi et al, 2012) were considered to be of weak/fair quality. The other articles (Scheewe et al, 2012;Georgiev et al, 2012;Battaglia et al, 2013;Visceglia et al, 2011Visceglia et al, 2011Heggelund et al, 2012) had a suitable quality score in one of two scales. Making an analysis by items, major deficiencies were the lack of masking (especially in patients and therapists), none of the studies in this review realized this masking, and no intention-to-treat analysis Manjunath et al, 2013;Varambally et al, 2012;Georgiev et al, 2012).…”

“…Most of the included studies diagnosed schizophrenia according to the DSM criteria apart from two studies which used the ICD-10 classification criteria (Ikai et al, 2013;Heggelund et al, 2012). Three studies included both inpatients and outpatients Ho et al, 2012;Heggelund et al, 2012), two studies relied solely on outpatients (Ikai et al, 2013;Varambally et al, 2012), four studies included only inpatients (Manjunath et al, 2013;Georgiev et al, 2012;Oertel-Knöchel et al, 2014;Visceglia and Lewis, 2011), and four studies did not specify the setting (Scheewe et al, , 2012Battaglia et al, 2013;Takahashi et al, 2012). More detailed characteristics of the participants are presented in Table 1 Studies included in a meta-analysis (n=0) …”

The construct validity of session RPE during an intensive camp in young male Karate athletes

“…It means that karate favors a strong association between motor skills such as coordinative or explosive legs strength skills and underlying processes of perceptual organization such as details recognition in visual images, perceptual grouping, figure-ground segregation and global-local processing. To sum up karate exercise may impact cognitive development through multiple pathways: 1) neuro-physiological by inducing changes in the brain structure; 2) contextual by producing an "enriched environment"; 3) social by creating opportunities of social interaction, cooperation with others, respecting rules, sharing leisure experiences, receiving the encouragement of peers; 4) motivational by increasing self-concept and self-awareness 22,23 . In conclusion, karate practice seems to represent an exercise program holding physical and psychological positive effects during the life span.…”