Abstract
Schizophrenia affects millions of Americans. It comes with positive and negative symptoms, impaired cognition, functional deficits, and poor quality of life. Presently there is no cure for schizophrenia. Recovery of the affected individuals implies symptom management and environmental supports, which requires an improved understanding of occupational performance in the context of psychiatric symptoms. This study examined sensation, motor, and process skills in relation to symptoms of schizophrenia.
Primary Author and Speaker: Lola Halperin
Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness affecting millions of Americans. It is characterized by positive and negative symptoms; cognitive impairments; sensory processing deficits; motor and process skill impairments; as well as compromised motor learning, functional difficulties, and diminished quality of life. Neuroscientists attribute the above deficits to abnormal brain development, exaggerated synaptic pruning, and neurodegenerative processes, causing disrupted connectivity and diminished plasticity in the brain, neurotransmitter dysfunction, and impaired sensory processing.
Presently, there is no cure for schizophrenia. Numerous medications and rehabilitation modalities exist; however, many of the affected individuals continue to struggle daily. Recovery of these individuals implies symptom management and environmental supports to foster integration into the society and improved quality of life.
Occupational therapists (OTs) utilize occupation-based assessments and interventions to evaluate and treat functional impairments in clients with various conditions, including schizophrenia, and provide their clients with environmental adaptations/modifications to enhance function. An improved understanding of the sensory differences and skill deficits, and their relationship with schizophrenia symptomatology is necessary to refine treatment and rehabilitation for this client population, and so far, several OT scholars have attempted to research this topic.
This descriptive/association study employed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP), Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) to examine the sensory patterns, and motor, and process skills of stabilized adult patients with schizophrenia in relation to their symptoms. The study was completed in an inpatient psychiatric facility, and 17 adult near-discharge patients of both genders diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders participated in it. It was hypothesized that the participants would present with deficient sensory patterns, and impaired motor, and process skills, and that significant relationships would be revealed between these deficits and the severity of psychiatric symptoms.
Pearson's and Spearman Rho tests were utilized for the data analysis. The statistical analysis of the data confirmed sensory differences, and motor and process skill deficits in the participants. It discovered correlations between low registration and sensory sensitivity, and anxiety/depression. Potential relationships were found between sensory avoidance and motor and process skill deficits. Additional findings included correlations between sensory sensitivity and sensory avoidance, between motor and process skill deficits, and between different categories of psychiatric symptoms.
Study findings emphasize the idea that schizophrenia rehabilitation necessitates addressing the skill deficits with which it comes. The study highlights the link between sensory differences, skill deficits and symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders as a part of the mechanism behind the functional difficulties in the affected individuals, and supports the idea that most of them may need some level of assistance in the community. Additionally, it provides evidence for the use of occupation-based assessments and interventions in mental health practice, and suggests further investigation of the role impaired sensory processing might play in schizophrenia symptomatology and the functional outcomes of the affected individuals.
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