The importance of sports for people with physical health problems has been widely recognized, and disciplines for adaptive sports have been established. However, competitive sports for people with mental health problems have not yet been established, and the practice and dissemination of such sports have not been promoted sufficiently in terms of people’s rights and significance of the sports. We conducted a literature review to clarify the current status and issues of competitive sports for people with mental health problems. The number of people with mental health problems involved in competitive sports has steadily increased, and such sports are regarded as useful activities. Their effects have also been reported in a large number of articles. However, only a few surveys have been conducted to investigate the needs of people with mental health problems involved in sports, leaving it unclear whether the support provided for them is meeting their needs. Additionally, despite the current active approaches towards the globalization of adaptive sports, the practice and dissemination of sports remains static in Japan, and insufficient opportunities have been given to those involved in sports. This indicates the need to clarify competitive sports that are desired by both individuals involved in sports as well as their supporters, and to develop a framework to promote participation in the sports and dissemination.

This study examined effective psychological resilience in the relationship between psychological sensitivity and burnout among university athletes. Participants were comprised of 188 university athletes (male＝33, female＝155 ; mean age＝19.7, SD＝1.2) who were asked to complete a questionnaire. Psychological sensitivity was predicted with burnout, and the psychological resilience of university athletes was classified into two factors : psychological resilience factors relevant to psychological sensitivity (PRFRPS, athletic mental toughness and athletic physical toughness) and psychological resilience factors irrelevant to psychological sensitivity (PRFIPS, athletic motivation and challenge and athletic self-understanding). PRFIPS indicated a buffer effect when an examination of the buffer effects of psychological resilience on the negative effect of psychological sensitivity for burnout was conducted using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). These results confirmed that psychological sensitivity could be one factor that promotes burnout, but burnout can be controlled by raising psychological resilience through PRFIPS.

In the Sydney Paralympic Games in 2000, the Spanish basketball team competing in the intellectually disabled (ID) class won the gold medal, but it was revealed that the majority of the team was not ID. Following this scandal, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) decided to suspend the ID competition sanctioned by the IPC, and the INAS (i.e., the international governing body for ID athletics) and the IPC together commenced developing a new process for determining the eligibility of ID athletes. The project’s main focus was to introduce both generalized eligibility criteria for all ID athletes and criteria tailored to each sport. The procedure of classification now requires that appropriate medical files first be submitted to the INAS International Eligibility Committee for review, and then on-site testing is conducted by a classification panel appointed by the international federation that governs the sport in question. The on-site testing focuses on ‘sports intelligence, ’ and includes tests relevant to that particular sport. As a result of these efforts, track and field, swimming, and table tennis games for ID athletes were reinstated for the 2012 London Paralympics. These procedures place new burdens on persons in charge to assure the accuracy of the criteria. But we, as those involved in the field, have a duty to maintain the opportunity to play competitive sports for people with intellectual disabilities.

Background : Patients with schizophrenia have reduced physical activity levels due to the side effects of antipsychotic drugs, create negative conditions like extrapyramidal symptoms and over-sedation. However, few studies have examined the relationship between antipsychotic drug dosages and physical activity. Methods : A total of 16 Japanese outpatients with schizophrenia participated. Their physical activity levels were measured with a physical activity level meter. The patients were classified into groups according to standard equivalent conversions of chlorpromazine (CPZeq) : the high CPZeq group, >1000 mg ; and the low CPZeq group, ≦1000 mg. Physical activity between the groups was compared. Results : Total physical activity was significantly lower in the high CPZeq group (2.10±1.48 EX [1 EX＝1 metabolic equivalent for 1 h]) than in the low CPZeq group (4.47±2.01 EX). Physical activity by exercise was also significantly lower in the high CPZeq group (1.63±1.28 EX) than in the low CPZeq group (3.61±1.99 EX). Discussion : Our results suggest that patients with schizophrenia taking a high dose of an antipsychotic drug have decreased levels of physical activity, especially exercise. Further studies are needed to clarify the relationship between psychotic symptoms, factors of lifestyle and physical symptoms.

There is no hard evidence that the physical fitness of patients with schizophrenia is lower than that of a ordinary person, nor why it is lower if this is the case. There is literature about it ; however, there is no clear evidence due to low number of studies and different ways of testing used. We conducted the Japan Fitness Test, which consists of six factors (i.e., grip strength, sit-up exercise, anteflexion of sitting position, jumping side to side, standing long jump, and 20-meter shuttle run), for 10 years at our day-care facility. A total of 84 patients participated in the test, which was implemented to confirm that sports are effective not only for recreation, but also promoting recovery from mental symptoms and social participation. In this study, we found that the levels of physical fitness of schizophrenia patients were lower than those of ordinary people, especially in terms of factors that depended on using the power of the lower body. However, we still had the problem of an insufficient number of participants to enable generalization. The meaning of the fitness tests was also considered.