For young people with schizophrenia, physical and mental exercises offer hope

Posted on April 7, 2016

Photo: flickr

Researchers have found a promising way to tackle the cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia. When combined with antipsychotic medication, a rigorous regime of mental and physical exercise can repair what is the most debilitating aspect of the mental illness: deficits in memory, problem solving, speed of processing and social intelligence. More than anything, these deficits are what tend to result in individuals with schizophrenia becoming disabled.

In as little as a few months, antipsychotic medications can tame the delusions and hallucinations that characterize schizophrenia. But the medications do little to reverse the less familiar brain-based problems that accompany the illness.

Over the course of the study, the cognitive performance of study participants who only completed brain training did not budge. But those who participated in physical exercise improved significantly.

The researchers say the improvements are due to a brain protein called brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor, which is released during aerobic exercise. A kind of Miracle-Gro for the brain, BDNF stimulates the hippocampus -- the brain's center of learning and long-term memory -- to sprout new neurons, and it increases connections between neurons. Those connections are where learning occurs and memories form.


Category(s):Schizophrenia

Source material from University of California - Los Angeles