The Effects of Board-Game Therapy on Cognitive Rehabilitation in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia.
- Author:
Tak YOUN
1
;
An Soon JEONG
Author Information
1. Chook-Ryoung Evangelical Hospital, Namyangju, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Board-game therapy;
Schizophrenia;
Executive cognitive function;
Wisconsin card sorting test(WCST);
Cognitive rehabilitation
- MeSH:
Humans;
Inpatients;
Rehabilitation*;
Schizophrenia*;
Wisconsin
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Biological Psychiatry
2006;13(2):82-94
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVES: In order to explore effects of board-game therapy for cognitive rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia, we investigated the change of executive cognitive function over a 2-month period of board-game therapy in patients with schizophrenia. METHODS: Two groups of chronic schizophrenic inpatients were participated in this study. One group(n=21) were treated with board-game therapy for 2 months and the other control group(n=19) were not treated. For the evaluation of the executive cognitive function, a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST) was administered before and after the introduction of the board-game therapy. PANSS score change was also evaluated. RESULT: At the beginning of this study, there was no significant difference in performance of cognitive function tests, demographical data or clinical severity between both patient groups. After 2 months of treatment with the board-game therapy, the board-game therapy group showed significant improvements of executive cognitive function without any significant change of their schizophrenic symptoms. On the contrary, there was no change in control group. CONCLUSION: This study showed that a board-game therapy is effective for the enhancement of executive cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia. A board-game therapy could be introduced with ease into psychiatric fields, such as inpatients' or outpatients' clinic wards and day hospital. Our result indicates that the board-game therapy is a promising tool for the enhancement of cognitive function, especially executive cognitive function and helpful for cognitive rehabilitation for schizophrenic patients.
