Mindful exercise versus non-mindful exercise for schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Objective: To investigate whether the mindful exercise was more beneficial than non-mindful exercise for people with schizophrenia.

Methods: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO were searched from their onset to April 2017. Randomized controlled trials of schizophrenia were selected. Mindful exercises were yoga, tai chi or qigong. Non-mindful exercises included any type of purely physical exercise. Risk of bias was assessed using criteria in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.

Results: Seven studies were identified. There were significant differences in favour of mindful exercise in psychiatric symptoms (total PANSS, 2 RCT, n = 101, MD -8.94, low-quality evidence) and "working memory" (1 RCT, n = 194, MD 0.39, low-quality). For outcomes of "attention" and social functioning, there was no clear difference. Four studies reported no adverse events.

Conclusions: Mindful exercise was more beneficial over non-mindful exercise on some outcomes of psychiatric symptoms and cognitive performance for schizophrenia.