Can meditation cure schizophrenia?

Been meditating almost daily for half an hour at a time. I've also been reading up on mental health issues and was curious if meditation could be an alternative remedy for people with schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.
Also, do you guys think this would make a good app idea? An app that provided guided meditation specifically for people with mental health issues.

My aunt had schizophrenia and the stories I hear about it are tough to swallow.

Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis where someone's experience of reality is distorted. It can be tough for the sufferer and those around them as most drug treatments don't help with minimizing the impact it has on cognitive and social function.

The good news is that meditation absolutely can be an alternate therapy for schizophrenia or other serious forms of psychosis.

Meditation has been proven to help with depression and anxiety – as both sole and additional interventions.

Recent research shows that Yoga and Meditation are feasible alternative therapies that actually help alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia and help people better deal with social situations.

It's not clear why - some evidence points to oxytocin (the "cuddle" hormone) which affects social cognition. My guess is that since Yoga and Meditation helps us relax and down-regulates our negative reactions to the world, that it has a calming effect in the mind.

There are apps for schizophrenia such as this iPhone App from SARDAA (Schizophrenia and Related Disorders Alliance of America Sardaa). It lets you track your symptoms, mood and vitals, so it would be really interesting to see what the impact of a meditation or yoga practice might look like. Definitely worth exploring.

Source: National Center for Biotechnology (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3410202/)