Background : Cardiovascular mortality is significantly increased on patients suffering from schizo- phrenia. The different factors related to the underlying pathology, antipsychotic medications and life style (e.g., reduced physical activity, smoking, general neglect of health, poor diet and decreased access to health care service) may contribute to the increased mortality in these patients. Heart rate variability provides reliable tools to assess the integrity and reactivity of autonomic nervous system activity. The autonomic nervous system plays an important role in regulating energy expenditure and body fat content, however, autonomic nervous system abnormality in schizophrenia is still a matter of debate. The present study investigates whether the sympathetic and/or parasympathetic nervous system activities is altered in schizophrenia with dyslipidemia.

Methods : One-hundred nineteen schizophrenic inpatients participated in this study. Autonomic nervous system activity was evaluated by heart rate variability power spectral analysis during the resting condition. We also measured anthropometric parameters and biochemical blood profiles for lipid metabolism. Body Mass Index was calculated as body mass divided by square height. The patients were categorized in two groups, fall under the category of dyslipidemia ; and non-dyslipidemia or Control groups.

Results : Body mass(62.4±2.0 vs, 57.2±1.1 kg, p=0.015)and Body Mass Index(24.1±0.5 vs. 22.2±0.4, p=0.015)were significantly greater in the dyslipidemia than in the control group. In addition, interest- ingly, the dyslipidemia group demonstrated a significantly lower Total Power (108.2±21.9 vs. 214.6 ±46.6 ms², p=0.041), Low-frequency Power(54.6±10.3 vs. 130.0±35.7 ms², p=0.045)compared with the non-dyslipidemia group.

Discussion : Our data indicate that the dyslipidemia group possesses reduced autonomic, especially sympathetic nervous system activity. Because the autonomic nervous system is involved in nearly every important homeostatic process going on within the body, the suppression of autonomic functioning can cause far-reaching adverse effects, including metabolic disorders and cardiovascular malfunction. This result implies that preventing and caring obesity in schizophrenia could be an urgent and crucial psychiatric health issue.

The group chair exercise with music therapy (GEMT) can easily be conducted and is something fun to do. It is considered to have high utility value in the long-term care prevention and in the functional training for older people.

The purpose of this study was to prove scientifically the effect of GEMT, on the psychiatric aspect. The participants of this study consisted of 20 healthy elderly people, of which 3 were men and 17 being women. Their age ranged from 66 years-old to 86 years-old, with the average age calculated to be 76.3 years-old. Sample saliva was taken from each participant both before and after doing GEMT, and its quantity and endocrine substances were measured. As the result of this analysis, quantity of saliva increased significantly when GEMT was conducted (1350.5±800.98 μl→1786.5±780.54 μl, mean±SD, p＜0.01), and cortisol in saliva showed significant decrease after the exercise (0.19±0.10 μg/dl→0.13±0.07 pg/dl, mean±SD, p＜0.001). However, when comparing pH and chromogranin-A measurements taken both before and after GEMT, no change was observed. Together with this saliva analysis, the survey was also conducted before and after the exercise among 20 participants to collect feedbacks on their changes in feelings and to analyze their mood profiles using the short form of the Profile of Mood States (POMS-SF) evaluation method. The survey result showed significant decrease in fatigue feeling after the exercise (3.63±4.09→2.30±3.13, p≦0.05). These results suggested that GEMT is effective not only in the physical function but also in the psychiatric aspect, providing positive effect in fatigue restoration and in relaxation.

Reduction of cognition and bodily sensation caused by the characteristics of mental disease and drug administration are said to lead to poor physical health and lower motivation. On the other hand, continued regular exercise, by improving somatic symptoms and increasing physical activity, is the basis for building up physical strength. However, its continuation is considered difficult. In this study, in addition to reporting the development of the physical exercise guidance which has continued for 13 years as a rehabilitation program in the day-care at the psychiatry department, we surveyed points of interests in which the participants desired to continue to participate in the program for a long period and considered the effect on the individual participants’ mental symptoms and physical energies, etc. by continued regular physical exercise. Thirty persons participating in the program were targeted. The degree of the interest was analyzed by VAS method. As a result, providing physical exercise which considers individual differences, without making the amount and intensity of the exercise uniform, drew out the interest of the participants. Furthermore, it was also indicated that this aids in the improvement of satisfaction and continued awareness.

We report a patient who exhibited specific memory disturbance due to traumatic head injury. After an unexpected head injury playing a handball game, 17 year-male patient was unable to recall the episodic memory, while he maintained the memory for 3-4 days. Although several neurological examinations have failed to elucidate the legions, FDG-PET successfully cleared the decreased metabolism in the right basal temporal and parietal regions. Through cognitive memory rehabilitation, his memory disturbance has remarkably improved, associated with improvement in the right temporal-parietal metabolism measured by FDG-PET. There are a large number of amnesic patients due to sport injury, incidentally occurred during training and game. Further studies and establishment of treatment are highly needed.

In Japan, there are three groups for mental support of top athletes. They are mental trainers, sports counselors, and clinical psychologists. Each group has it’s own specialty and they overlap in some situations, so there are some difficulties in cooperation.

In this paper, the author overviews the history of the trial to cooperate in Japanese Institute of Sports Science, including the process to regularize meetings and case conferences to understand each other. The author proposes a new style to support top athletes with the three groups’ cooperation in Japan .