PERFORMING SOCCER GAME AFFECTS THE VELOCITY, AGILITY AND PSYCHOPHYSICAL CONDITION IN PSYCHOTIC SUBJECTS

Introduction Physical activity is an important aspect of good health for everyone and is even more important for psychiatric patients who usually live an unhealthy lifestyle and assume medications that tend to reinforce their metabolic syndrome (Kopp, 2009). The purpose of this study was to examine whether performing soccer game by psychotic subjects has effects on their velocity, agility and psychophysical perception. Methods Methods Eighteen overweight male subjects, 8 no-trained psychotics [NTPs] (age: 35.00+/-5.00 years; height: 163.00+/-4.00 cm; BMI: 25.00-29.90) and 10 trained psychotics [TPs] (age: 36.00+/-6.00 years; height: 164.00+/-7.00 cm; BMI: 25.00- 29.90) from Local Health of Palermo (Sicily, Italy) participated in this study. NTPs did not performed any sports activity during the experimentation; while TPs were trained for 8 weeks by two sessions/week. In particular, every trained session included a warm up pattern for 20 minutes (min), a training period of 50 min including soccer technical-tactical exercises and a short match; finally a cool down part for 10 min. We evaluated the physical condition of the subjects measuring their body weight (BW) and body mass index (BMI). The velocity and agility were estimated recording the time used to perform 30 meter sprint test (30mST) and slalom test running with a ball (STB) between 5 cones located 50 cm apart. Psychophysical perception of psychotics was studied using the SF-12 health status questionnaire that measures self-rated health (Faulkner G et al., 2007). It investigated the summary measures PCS-12 (physical domain of SF-12, scores ranging from 0 to 70) and MCS-12 (mental domain of SF-12, scores ranging from 0 to 70). All data were acquired before and after the experimentation. Results After the training period PCS-12, MCS-12 and performances of 30mST and STB were improved in TPs compared with NTPs. In contrast, BW and BMI were lower in TPs than NTPs. Discussion We showed that training sessions of soccer game can improve the psychophysical condition and sports performance in psychotic subjects. In agreement with Pringle (2009), this might be due to the organized social phenomenonof soccer game that promotes a sporting therapeutic and healthy antagonism. Integrating physical activity programs into psychiatric services can improve physical health outcomes of patients with serious mental illness and may produce improvements in psychological and social outcomes. References Kopp M: Physical activity in persons with severe mental illness: research- based clinical recommendations. Neuropsychiatr. 2009; 23(3):151-6. Faulkner G, Cohn T, Remington G, Irving H: Body mass index, waist circumference and quality of life in individuals with schizophrenia. Schizophr Res. 2007; 90(1-3):174-8. Pringl