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Cited by 60Behavioral Health and InterventionsSchizophrenia research and treatmentPhysical Activity and Health

A brief intervention to improve exercising in patients with schizophrenia: a controlled pilot study with mental contrasting and implementation intentions (MCII)

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Sailer, Pascal, Wieber, Frank, Pröpster, Karl, Stoewer, Steffen, Nischk, Daniel, Volk, Franz, Odenwald, Michael·2015·BMC Psychiatry
DOI 10.1186/s12888-015-0513-yPMC PMC4557227
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Regular exercise can have positive effects on both the physical and mental health of individuals with schizophrenia. However, deficits in cognition, perception, affect, and volition make it especially difficult for people with schizophrenia to plan and follow through with their exercising intentions, as indicated by poor attendance and high drop-out rates in prior studies. Mental Contrasting and Implementation Intentions (MCII) is a well-established strategy to support the enactment of intended actions. This pilot study tests whether MCII helps people with schizophrenia in highly structured or autonomy-focused clinical hospital settings to translate their exercising intentions into action. METHODS: Thirty-six inpatients (eleven women) with a mean age of 30.89 years (SD = 11.41) diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders from specialized highly structured or autonomy-focused wards were randomly assigned to two intervention groups. In the equal contact goal intention control condition, patients read an informative text about physical activity; they then set and wrote down the goal to attend jogging sessions. In the MCII experimental condition, patients read the same informative text and then worked through the MCII strategy. We hypothesized that MCII would increase attendance and persistence relative to the control condition over the course of four weeks and this will be especially be the case when applied in an autonomy-focused setting compared to when applied in a highly structured setting. RESULTS: When applied in autonomy-focused settings, MCII increased attendance and persistence in jogging group sessions relative to the control condition. In the highly structured setting, no differences between conditions were found, most likely due to a ceiling effect. These results remained even when adjusting for group differences in the pre-intervention scores for the control variables depression (BDI), physical activity (IPAQ), weight (BMI), age, and education. Whereas commitment and physical activity apart from the jogging sessions remained stable over the course of the treatment, depression and negative symptoms were reduced. There were no differences in pre-post treatment changes between intervention groups. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention in the present study provides initial support for the hypothesis that MCII helps patients to translate their exercising intentions into real-life behavior even in autonomously-focused settings without social control. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov ID; URL: NCT01547026 Registered 3 March 2012.

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sailer, P., Wieber, F., Pröpster, K., Stoewer, S., Nischk, D., Volk, F., & Odenwald, M.
Affiliations
University of Konstanz (DE)
Corresponding author
Odenwald, Michael
ORCID
Venue
BMC Psychiatry
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2015-09-03
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
211-211
ISSN
1471-244X (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12888-015-0513-y
PMC
PMC4557227
OpenAlex
W1929355084
Cited by
60
References
8
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
7.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Psychiatry (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • KOPS (University of Konstanz) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Physical Activity and Health
Keywords
schizophrenia, physical activity, exercise adherence, brief behavioral intervention, psychiatric inpatient care, depression, negative symptoms
MeSH terms
Adult, Analysis of Variance, Attention, Body Weight, Exercise Therapy, Female, Goals, Humans, Jogging, Male, Mental Health, Motivation, Patient Education as Topic, Pilot Projects, Schizophrenia, Body Mass Index, Treatment Outcome, Intention

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