Physical Exercise in Patients With Schizophrenia

University of Salamanca

Status: Not yet enrolling

Conditions: Telomere Shortening; Physical Activity; Schizophrenia; Premature Aging

Treatments: Other: Strength physical exercise programme; Other: Normal life

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05978921

ExerciseSchizophrenia

Details and patient eligibility

About

Randomised clinical trial on a cohort of subjects with a diagnosis of schizophrenia of legal age, of both sexes, recruited in the mental health clinics of the Salamanca University Assistance Complex and who will be randomly distributed into two groups (intervention and control).

The main objective of the study is to determine the effect of physical exercise on telomere size in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.

As secondary objectives in this group of patients we will try to:

Evaluate the influence of strength training on cognition and negative symptoms of schizophrenia.

To quantify the impact of strength training on frailty. To determine the effect of strength training on quality of life. To study the possible correlation between physical parameters (frailty) and telomere length.

To establish the importance of polymorphisms in telomerase genes, an enzyme involved in the maintenance of telomere length.

Enrollment: 40 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• be at least 18 years of age
• have been diagnosed with schizophrenia for at least 5 years

Exclusion criteria

• are unable to read and understand the patient information sheet and sign the informed consent form.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

An additional strength training programme will be carried out for 12 weeks with 2 sessions per week. The sessions will last approximately 50 minutes and will be divided into 3 distinct parts: The first part will consist of a warm-up with a part of aerobic exercise that will last approximately 15 minutes. This will be followed by the main part of strength training with a circuit of 6 exercises (3 series x 12 repetitions) which will last approximately 25 minutes. Finally, there will be a cool down phase with breathing exercises to allow people to recover.

Treatment:

Other: Strength physical exercise programme

Control group

Sham Comparator group

Description:

Subjects in the control group will continue with their normal life and carry out all the activities they have been doing previously.

Treatment:

Other: Normal life