6 THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF ETHNIC MUSIC THERAPY ON PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENIA
Authors: Wei* Pengfei , Yan Bing 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Chronic schizophrenia is a long-term mental disorder mainly characterized by cognitive dysfunction, emotional bland and social dysfunction. In recent years, folk music therapy, as a kind of non-drug intervention, has attracted more and more attention in the field of mental health due to its cultural adaptability and emotional resonance effect. The purpose of this study is to explore the specific effect of folk music therapy in the treatment of chronic schizophrenia, and to provide theoretical basis for comprehensive treatment.

Methods
The study is a randomized controlled trial that included 120 patients with chronic schizophrenia. They were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group, with 60 patients in each group. Both groups received conventional drug treatment and basic psychological intervention, and the experimental group received folk music therapy intervention on this basis for 12 weeks. Folk music therapy consists of three parts: listening to folk music once a day for 30 minutes each time, selecting the folk music that the patient is familiar with or likes; Music participation activities once a week, including folk instrument playing practice and folk singing guidance, 60 minutes each time; Musical emotional expression is performed once a week to guide patients to express their emotions and communicate their feelings through music. Before and after the intervention, positive and negative symptom scales, social dysfunction screening scales and subjective well-being scales were used to evaluate the patients.

Results
The positive and negative symptom scale scores of the intervention and control groups were shown in Figure. 1.
As can be seen from Figure 1 (a), the positive and negative symptom scale scores of patients in the experimental group decreased significantly, with positive symptoms decreasing from 45.3±8.7 before intervention to 30.8±6.2, and negative symptoms decreasing from 48.7±9.1 to 33.5±7.3. As can be seen from Figure 1 (b), the positive and negative symptom scales in the control group decreased slightly, with positive symptoms decreasing from 44.9±8.5 to 36.2±6.8, and negative symptoms decreasing from 48.5±9.3 to 38.9±7.9, with statistically significant differences between the two groups (P&lt;0.01). Social function Deficit Screening Scale scores showed significant improvement in the experimental group, from 8.5±2.3 to 5.4±1.8 before the intervention, while the control group changed less, from 8.6±2.2 to 6.8±2.1. The subjective well-being scale score showed that the experimental group’s score increased by 36.7% after the intervention, while the control group’s score increased by only 12.4%.

Discussion
The study showed that ethnomedical therapy can significantly improve the clinical symptoms, social function and subjective well-being of patients with chronic schizophrenia. Possible mechanisms include the modulating effect of music on the emotional center of the brain, the enhancement of emotional resonance by cultural background, and the use of folk music as a form of psychological support. Folk music therapy not only improves patients’ compliance, but also promotes the expression and regulation of patients’ emotions. This study can provide some guidance for the treatment of chronic schizophrenia.