71 THE EFFECT OF PAINTING ART COMBINED WITH EMOTIONAL THERAPY ON THE SLEEP QUALITY OF PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: Xue Shujing 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Schizophrenia patients generally suffer from reduced self-efficacy and decreased sleep quality. Currently, there is a strong stigmatization of schizophrenia on social media, which believes that schizophrenia patients are at risk. This brings strong emotional interference to patients and exacerbates their condition. Schizophrenia patients have poor adaptability and find it difficult to adapt to the current conventional hospitalization treatment methods. Patients often feel confined and unable to obtain social and emotional support. The current art painting therapy has been introduced into nursing interventions for schizophrenia, believing that artistic imagery and intuition can help maintain patients’ thinking, and therefore is considered an effective self-healing method for schizophrenia. Therefore, the study will focus on patients with schizophrenia and explore the nursing intervention effect of painting art combined with emotional therapy on patients.

Methods
The study focused on 92 patients with schizophrenia and divided them into two groups based on different intervention methods. A total of 46 patients in the control group were treated with traditional medication intervention and a harmonious dietary environment design for intervention nursing. The experimental group, on the basis of medication and dietary care in the control group, added artistic creation activities and positive emotion guidance training. During the experiment, the General Self Efficacy Scale and the Self Rating Depression Scale were used as indicators of the effectiveness of emotional intervention in patients, while the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to evaluate the sleep quality of patients.

Results
After intervention, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group patients. The score of the control group patients was 17.36±1.53 before intervention, and decreased to 15.81±1.64 after intervention. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index of the experimental group patients decreased from 17.29±1.62 before intervention to 13.29±1.73 after intervention. Meanwhile, in the evaluation of self-efficacy, the score of the control group patients was 1.31±0.08, which increased to 1.52±0.28 after intervention. The self-efficacy evaluation of the experimental group patients before and after intervention was 1.33±0.06 and 2.68±0.46, respectively, indicating a significant increase in self-efficacy. Therefore, it can be seen that compared to traditional intervention nursing methods for schizophrenia, the integration of art painting activities and emotional guidance training leads to a more significant improvement in patients’ sleep quality and self-efficacy evaluation.

Discussion
The experimental results indicate that the art form of painting can help patients with schizophrenia think about their own problems and develop their potential, providing positive emotions for patients through the results of artistic creation. In painting art activities, patients can communicate with themselves in a non-verbal way, thereby reducing their self resistance and anxiety. At the same time, after incorporating emotional therapy, patients can enhance their confidence and self-efficacy, reduce emotional disorders, improve their self-evaluation and cognition, thereby alleviating anxiety and insomnia symptoms, and improving the quality of their sleep.