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. 2023 Oct 3:36:101214.
doi: 10.1016/j.conctc.2023.101214. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Effect of 12-week shen-based qigong exercise on the residual symptoms of schizophrenia: Study protocol for a single-centre randomised controlled trial

Anbei Lian  1 , Qing Fan  2   3   4 , Wenzheng Wang  2 , Qinxin Liu  2 , Jiacheng Shi  5 , Min Zhuang  6 , Yujie Li  5   7 , Xiaodan Liu  5   8
Affiliations

Effect of 12-week shen-based qigong exercise on the residual symptoms of schizophrenia: Study protocol for a single-centre randomised controlled trial

Anbei Lian et al. Contemp Clin Trials Commun. .

Abstract

Introduction: Negative symptoms and cognitive impairment are common residual symptoms of schizophrenia that seriously affect the quality of life and social function of patients. The intervention of residual symptoms is an important part of schizophrenia rehabilitation. Traditional Chinese exercise has been applied as a supplementary rehabilitation method for schizophrenia. However, research on its use and pertinence in the rehabilitation of residual symptoms remains lacking. In this study, we will verify the intervention effect of a new method, namely, shen-based qigong exercise, on the residual symptoms of schizophrenia, in the hopes of finding a safe and effective rehabilitation method for the residual symptoms of schizophrenia.

Methods: This is a single-centre randomised controlled trial. A total of 60 schizophrenics who meet the criteria will be randomly divided into the control and intervention groups in accordance with the ratio of 1:1. Conventional drug treatment will remain unchanged in both groups. In this case, the control group will be given daily rehabilitation, whereas the intervention group will be given daily rehabilitation and shen-based qigong exercise intervention. The intervention period will be 12 weeks. The primary outcome will be negative symptoms assessed by the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. The secondary outcome will be the global cognitive function assessed by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status and event-related potential P300. Other outcomes will include specific cognitive domain (i.e. working memory), quality of life and social function. The results will be measured within 1 week before and after the intervention.

Discussion: The results of this study will likely help find an economical and convenient rehabilitation method for the residual symptoms of schizophrenia and, at the same time, may promote the popularisation and application of traditional Chinese exercises and traditional Chinese medicine theories in the treatment of mental diseases.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov registry number: NCT05310955.

Keywords: Clinical trial protocol; Qigong; Randomised controlled trial; Rehabilitation; Schizophrenia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study flow chart. ERP P300, event-related potential P300; N-back, N-back task; RBANS, Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status; SANS, Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms; SF-36, 36-item Short Form Health Survey; SAFE, Social-Adaptive Functioning Evaluation.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
SPIRIT figure showing time points for enrollment, interventions and assessment. *Basic characteristics include demographic information such as gender, age, years of schooling and medication. *Negative symptoms will be assessed by the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms. *Global cognitive function will be assessed by the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status and event-related potential P300. *Specific cognitive domain (i.e. working memory) will be assessed by the N-back task. *Quality of life will be assessed by 36-item Short Form Health Survey. *Social function will be assessed by Social-Adaptive Functioning Evaluation.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Movements of shen-based qigong exercise. The presenter in the figure is LIAN Anbei, one of the authors of this study.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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