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Beijing, China | XINHUA | Researchers have proved that mind-body exercises can effectively improve the typical clinical symptoms of schizophrenia patients, according to a recent research article published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry.
Drug therapy alone is effective in treating the first acute phase of schizophrenia, but is less effective and has obvious side effects for relapsed and chronic patients. Mind-body exercises have been widely accepted as a complementary therapy for patients with low exercise tolerance.
The research group from the Institute of Psychology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences cooperated with foreign universities and institutes to systematically review and meta-analyze the effects of mind-body exercises on schizophrenia. They reviewed 13 studies from seven databases and tested 1,159 patients.
The results showed that mind-body exercises can effectively improve the typical clinical symptoms of schizophrenia including auditory hallucinations, delusions, mental confusion, timidity, lack of logical thinking and apathy. Mind-body exercises also contributed to the therapy of depressive symptoms of schizophrenia patients.
Wei Gaoxia, a researcher with the institute, said further empirical investigations using brain imaging techniques are needed to identify the neural correlates underlying the effects of mind-body exercises in treating schizophrenia.
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XINHUA
