[Exercise-promoting interventions for encouraging people with schizophrenia to take physical exercise].

Background: Physical activity is of therapeutic value for people with schizophrenia. However, only a small percentage of them is physically active.

Aim: To provide an overview, based on scientific evidence, of effective aspects of exercise-promoting interventions that can be used to induce patients with schizophrenia to engage in and continue with physical activity.

Method: We looked for articles in PubMed and the Cochrane Library on the basis of the search terms ‘adherence, ‘physical activity', ‘exercise, ‘schizophrenia, ‘psychosis, ‘chronic illness; and ‘severe mental illness.

Results: The exercise-promoting interventions that are the most successful are those which set one goal, involve self-monitoring , stimuli and cues and use a behavioural therapeutic approach. To be effective, interventions also have to be of moderate to high intensity, be integrated into daily life and be professionally supervised, particularly at the beginning.

Conclusion: Exercise has the potential to make an important and positive contribution to the recovery of patients with schizophrenia and should occupy a prominent position in the arsenal of therapies. Apparently, specific interventions can encourage patients to start taking and continue taking physical exercise.