Effects of 12 Weeks Walking on Cognitive Function in Schizophrenia

This study is a 12-week randomized-controlled clinical trial. It will be planned to conduct in a total of 120 male and female subjects from the Department of Psychiatry at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital. Eligible subjects will be psychiatric patients, aged between 20-65 years old, who have psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia and fulfill the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The intervention with aerobic walking programs will be initiated after randomization for patients who continue their usual treatment. Subjects will be enrolled for 12 weeks aerobic walking treatment and randomly assigned to (1) treatment-as-usual, (2) treatment-as-usual plus aerobic walking. We will measure the treatment response to clarify the effect of aerobic walking in patients with schizophrenia. This study is being performed to investigate the possibly beneficial effects of aerobic walking on cognitive function and energy metabolites in schizophrenia.