Acute Effects of Exercise in Smokers With Schizophrenia

People with schizophrenia have two- to three-times the mortality risk of the general
population. This is primarily due to their unusually high rates of cigarette smoking, as
well as other cardiovascular risk factors such as physical inactivity, obesity, high blood
cholesterol and diabetes. Effective smoking treatments are needed to reduce morbidity and
mortality in this population. Over a dozen experimental studies indicate that walking and
other forms of exercise acutely reduce cigarette craving, nicotine withdrawal symptoms and
smoking behavior in non-psychiatric smokers. However, the effects of acute exercise on
smoking measures have not been studied in smokers with schizophrenia. This study will use a
within-subjects, repeated-measures design, in which participants will undergo 4 laboratory
sessions (order counterbalanced across participants): (1) smoking cues followed by exercise,
(2) smoking cues followed by passive activity, (3) neutral cues followed by exercise, (4)
neutral cues followed by passive activity. Outcome measures include cigarette craving,
nicotine withdrawal symptoms, mood and smoking behavior. If the results of this study
indicate that walking acutely reduces craving and smoking in smokers with schizophrenia, the
next step in this research would be to test the effectiveness of a smoking cessation
intervention that incorporates exercise bouts as a behavioral strategy for improving smoking
cessation rates in this population.