Lifestyle intervention based on exercise and behavioural counselling and its effect on physical and psychological health in outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. An exploratory, pragmatic randomized clinical trial
Publicated to:Schizophrenia Research. 261 256-268 - 2023-11-01 261(), DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2023.09.036
Authors: Fernández-Abascal, B; Suárez-Pinilla, M; Cobo-Corrales, C; Crespo-Facorro, B; Suárez-Pinilla, P
Affiliations
Abstract
Patients with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders (SSD) often lead unhealthy lifestyles. This pragmatic trial evaluated the effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention, consisting of a 12-week aerobic exercise program and behavioural counselling, in SSD outpatients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). It also aimed to assess persistence of potential effects in a 24-month long-term follow-up. Effectiveness was measured in terms of a wide range of outcomes involving physical and psychological health, quality of life, physical activity and changes in motivation to exercise within the context of the self-determination theory. Our primary outcome was waist circumference change. Thirty-three out of 48 participants completed the study. No differences between groups were found in terms of BMI change or other metabolic parameters. However, the active group (AG) showed improvement regarding waist circumference, negative symptomatology and identified motivation to exercise during the study and follow-up. The AG exhibited changes toward a more active pattern of activity after intervention. Moreover, belonging to the AG was a significant predictor for achieving any degree of clinical improvement after 24-month follow-up. Combined interventions of exercise and behavioural counselling in SSD patients with MetS should be considered as an essential part of the integral treatment in the context of mental health services.
Keywords
Quality index
Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel
The work has been published in the journal Schizophrenia Research due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 66/279, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Psychiatry.
From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 1.59, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jul 2025)
Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-07-13, the following number of citations:
- WoS: 1