Abstract
BackgroundYoung people with first episode psychosis are at an increased risk for a range of poor health outcomes. In contrast to the growing body of evidence that suggests that exercise therapy may benefit the physical and mental health of people diagnosed with schizophrenia, there are no studies to date that have sought to extend the use of exercise therapy among patients with first episode psychosis. The aim of the study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of an exercise program that will be delivered via internet enabled mobile devices and social networking technologies among young people with first episode psychosis.Methods/DesignThis study is a qualitative pilot study being conducted at Orygen Youth Health Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia. Participants are young people aged 15-24 who are receiving clinical care at a specialist first episode psychosis treatment centre. Participants will also comprise young people from the general population. The exercise intervention is a 9-week running program, designed to gradually build a person's level of fitness to be able to run 5 kilometres (3 miles) towards the end of the program. The program will be delivered via an internet enabled mobile device. Participants will be asked to post messages about their running experiences on the social networking website, and will also be asked to attend three face-to-face interviews.DiscussionThis paper describes the development of a qualitative study to pilot a running program coupled with the use of internet enabled mobile devices among young people with first episode psychosis. If the program is found to be feasible and acceptable to patients, it is hoped that further rigorous evaluations will ultimately lead to the introduction of exercise therapy as part of an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach in routine clinical care.
Highlights
Young people with first episode psychosis are at an increased risk for a range of poor health outcomes
This paper describes the development of a qualitative study to pilot a running program coupled with the use of internet enabled mobile devices among young people with first episode psychosis
This paper describes the development of a qualitative study to pilot a running program coupled with the use of an internet enabled mobile device among young people experiencing their first episode of psychosis
Summary
Young people with first episode psychosis are at an increased risk for a range of poor health outcomes. The aim of the study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of an exercise program that will be delivered via internet enabled mobile devices and social networking technologies among young people with first episode psychosis Young people experiencing their first episode psychosis are at an increased risk of poor health outcomes, such as weight gain [1], cardiovascular disease and diabetes [2,3], and often present with significant medical co-morbidities [4]. Participants reported more positive psychological well-being and social interaction with family and friends following the intervention [12,13] These findings are bolstered by randomised controlled trials that found significantly greater reductions in body fat [14] and significant improvements in depression, anxiety [10,15] and negative symptom scores [10,14] among experimental participants compared to controls. One trial compared yoga therapy with exercise therapy and found that while yoga therapy participants showed significantly reduced levels of psychopathology and greater quality of life when compared to physical exercise participants, both groups demonstrated an increase in social and occupational functioning [10,16]
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