Improvement in daily functioning after aerobic exercise training in schizophrenia is sustained after exercise cessation
Peter Falkai, Isabel Maurus, Andrea Schmitt, Berend Malchow, Thomas Schneider-Axmann, Lukas Röll, Sergi Papiol, Thomas Wobrock, Alkomiet Hasan, Daniel Keeser
Abstract
Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia are crucially important for patients' functional outcome, but they do not significantly improve with currently available treatment options. On the basis of animal work indicating that physical activity stimulates neurogenesis in adults and enhances cognitive performance, several groups around the world performed aerobic exercise studies in schizophrenia (SZ). These studies demonstrated that physical exercise improves negative symptoms and cognitive dysfunction and indicated that the improvements in cognition may be related to improved brain plasticity in relevant brain regions, such as the hippocampus The neurobiological mechanisms proposed as drivers of these effects include synaptic plasticity and, more recently, oligodendrocyte differentiation [2]. However, unclear was