Department of Neuropsychiatry, Oita University Faculty of Medicine, Yufu City, Oita, Japan.
Stress Health. 2012 Apr;28(2):98-101. doi: 10.1002/smi.1408. Epub 2011 May 17.
The main aims of psychiatric occupational therapy are to improve daily activity, to enhance communication with others and to reinforce social adaptation. Also, substantial improvements in psychiatric symptoms have been reported, but the effects on psychiatric symptoms are yet to be established. In the present study, we investigated the effects of single and repeated administrations of psychiatric occupational therapy on psychiatric symptoms and determined whether the effects can be predicted. Our subjects were 215 inpatients or outpatients at our university hospital who participated in psychiatric occupational therapy. Five psychiatric symptoms (i.e. depressive mood, tension, irritability, anxiety and fatigue) were subjectively measured just before and just after each psychiatric occupational therapy by using a visual analogue scale (VAS). As a result, there was a significant short-term effect from single psychiatric occupational therapy, but there was no significant further improvement of any psychiatric symptom from repeated psychiatric occupational therapy. The VAS value at the beginning stage significantly predicted improvement of each psychiatric symptom. These findings suggest that single psychiatric occupational therapy can bring about a short-term effect, whereas repeated psychiatric occupational therapy cannot induce long-term effect (accumulated effect) on psychiatric symptoms, and that the improvement can be predicted by baseline psychiatric symptoms.
精神科作业疗法的主要目的是改善日常活动，增强与他人的沟通能力，增强社会适应能力。此外，还报道了精神科症状的实质性改善，但精神科症状的效果尚未确定。在本研究中，我们调查了单次和重复进行精神科作业疗法对精神科症状的影响，并确定了这些影响是否可以预测。我们的研究对象是在我们大学医院接受精神科作业疗法的 215 名住院或门诊患者。在每次精神科作业疗法前后，使用视觉模拟量表（VAS）主观测量 5 种精神科症状（即抑郁情绪、紧张、易怒、焦虑和疲劳）。结果表明，单次精神科作业疗法有显著的短期效果，但重复精神科作业疗法对任何精神科症状均无显著的进一步改善。初始阶段的 VAS 值显著预测了每个精神科症状的改善。这些发现表明，单次精神科作业疗法可以带来短期效果，而重复精神科作业疗法不能对精神科症状产生长期效果（累积效果），并且可以通过基线精神科症状来预测改善。
