48 THE EFFECT OF ART THERAPY ON THE MOOD OF PSYCHOTIC SCHIZOPHRENIC PATIENTS
Authors: Fang Jing 
Published: February 2025

Abstract

Background
Schizophrenia is a group of serious mental diseases that often occur in young adults. At present, the pathogenesis of schizophrenia has not been fully defined, and it is believed that it is influenced by genetic, neurobiological, environmental and psychosocial factors. Risperidone, olanzapine, aripiprazole and other drugs can regulate the function of neurotransmitters and relieve mental symptoms to a certain extent. However, long-term medication can easily lead to reduced adherence to the drug and damage to other body functions. At present, various psychological AIDS have been applied to the treatment of various mental and psychological diseases in clinical research, among which the clinical effect of art therapy has been widely concerned. Art therapy can improve the physiological, psychological, life and social states of participants through painting, music gardening, handwork and other forms, but its intervention effect in the emotional regulation of schizophrenia patients has not been proven, so this study applies art therapy to the intervention of schizophrenia to investigate its impact on patients’ emotions.

Methods
Fifty patients who met the third edition of Chinese Classification and Diagnosis criteria for schizophrenia were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. The control group received conventional treatment without any other form of psychological intervention. The experimental group received art therapy as defined by the British Association of Art Therapists for intervention, 120min twice a week for 6 months. Scale scores were performed for two types of treatment: Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), Patient Health Questionnaired-9, PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7), Emotional Expressivity Scale (GAD-7), EES), Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), which were conducted at various stages before, during and after the intervention, and data analysis was performed using SPSS25.0 software.

Results
The difference of treatment means made the scale score different between groups. Compared with the control group, the experimental group’s DERS scale was significant after the third month (P&lt;0.05), and finally achieved a DERS scale score of 37.164 after the intervention, and the emotional regulation ability was significantly improved. The scores of GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scales decreased in both groups, but the scores of the two scales in the art therapy intervention group decreased by 17.164 and 11.467 points, respectively, and there was a statistically significant difference compared with the control group (P&lt;0.05). At the same time, in the two dimensions of positive emotion and negative emotion, the positive emotion of the experimental group was stronger, the negative emotion was weaker, and the emotional positivity was stronger than that of the control group (P&lt;0.05). Finally, the EES score of the experimental group increased from (47.116±2.496) to (54.794±3.467), which was significantly different from that of the control group (P&lt;0.05).

Discussion
Art therapy is a kind of non-invasive behavior therapy, which can stimulate the emotional expression of patients in the intervention process of psychological and mental diseases, help patients complete the reconstruction of self-awareness, and improve the ability of emotional regulation. The results of the study showed that art therapy touched the deep emotions and thinking of patients to some extent, improved the emotional regulation of patients, and helped to improve positive emotions. During the intervention, art therapy helped the patients to build self-confidence and self-esteem, and the scores of all scales were significantly improved.