Effects of Group Art Therapy Program on Self-Esteem and Mental Health Status in Chronic Schizophrenic Inpatients / 간호학회지

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of the 8-week, 15-session group art therapy program on self-esteem and mental health status in chronic schizophrenic inpatients. The sample consisted of two groups of chronic schizophrenic inpatients: 10 patients with an average of total disease duration of 8.90 years who participated in a 8-week group art therapy program, and 8 comparison subjects with an average of total disease duration of 8.25 years who did not participate in the program. A pretest-posttest quasiexperimental design was used to assess self-esteem and mental health status at the beginning and at the end of the 8-week, 15-session group art therapy program. The time points for obtaining data were matched for both groups. The effectiveness of the 8-week group art therapy program was assessed by Rosenberg's Self-esteem Scale(Rosenberg, 1965) and SCL-90- R(Derogatis et al., 1973). SPSSWIN 8.0 was utilized for data entry and analysis employing Mann-Whitney U test. The findings of the study indicated the followings: (a) No significant differences were found between two groups in self-esteem and (b) The experimental group showed significantly lower scores in obsessive-compulsive symptom dimension and interpersonal sensitivity symptom dimension on the SCL-90-R than the comparison group after participating in the group art therapy program. In conclusion, the findings showed the possibility of applying group art therapy as an effective nursing intervention for patients with lack of verbal communication skills and social interaction to improve their interpersonal relationship.

A Comparative Study of Clinical Effects and Changes of Plasma HVA and 5-HIAA on Risperidone vs Haloperidol in Chronic Schizophrenic Patients / 대한정신약물학회지

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to compare risperidone(as an atypical antipsychotic) with haloperidol(as a typical antipsychotic), so we examined the clinical effects and changes of plasma HVA, 5-HIAA & HVA/5-HIAA ratio after 8 week of risperidone or haloperidol trial. METHOD: Twenty-six male chronic schizophrenic patients were treated for 8 weeks with risperidone(N=14) and haloperidol(N=12). The duration of wash-out period was 14 days. The psychopathologic assessment was chechked by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale(PANSS) and plasma HVA & 5-HIAA was measured by High Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC) with electrochemical detector. The checking points were just before drug trial and 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 8th week(total 5 times). RESULTS: 1) Risperidone trial group were more improved than haloperidol tiral group in PANSS scores(total, positive, negative and general psychopathy). 2) Changes of plasma HVA and 5-HIAA in the risperidone and haloperidol trial group were not statistically different. But because baseline 5-HIAA of risperidone trial group was higher than that of haloperidol trial group, the increase of haloperidol trial group would be more. 3) There was significant difference in changes of HVA/5-HIAA ratio between risperidone and haloperidol trial group. But the change of HVA compared with 5-HIAA in risperidone trial group was higher than that of haloperidol trial group. CONCLUSION: These results revealed that risperidone was more effective in clinical symptoms, and suggest that cause of these results may be due to blocking both of dopamine D2 receptors and serotonin 5-HT2 receptors of risperidone.