London, Aug 10 (IANS): Researchers at Cambridge University have developed a smartphone game that can help reduce symptoms of schizophrenia.

The game, called Wizard, helps those diagnosed with schizophrenia practice day-to-day cognitive skills that keep their brains sharp.

It has been designed to help deal with symptoms such as paranoia and hallucinations, and has been paired with the popular brain-training app, Peak.

"In conjunction with medication and current psychological therapies, (Wizard) could help people with schizophrenia minimise the impact of their illness in their everyday life," The Guardian quoted a research team member as saying.

The study found that 22 patients who played the memory game committed fewer errors and needed less effort to remember the location of different patterns of specific tests.

Improvements in memory retention, remembering dates and times and understanding the context, conversation and other forms of communication are all categories that improved when patients used the game on a regular basis.

Wizard is currently available for iOS platform only, and soon it would be available for Android.

The study was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.