49 THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECT OF EXPRESSIVE ART THERAPY ON COGNITIVE FUNCTION IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract Background Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness in which patients are often accompanied by impairments in cognitive functions such as attention, working memory, language fluency, and executive function. These defects not only affect patients’ daily living abilities, but also significantly limit their recovery of social functions. In recent years, expressive arts therapy has gradually attracted attention as a non-drug intervention method. This treatment method promotes the improvement of patients’ mental health and cognitive function through the combination of music, painting and other art forms. Methods The study included 50 patients who met the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), with an age range of 18-55 years. They were randomly divided into a treatment group of 25 and a control group of 25. The treatment group received 12 weeks of expressive art therapy, 3 times a week, 1 hour each time, including music, painting and dance activities. The control group only received conventional drug treatment. Both groups of patients were evaluated by cognitive function battery tests before and after the intervention, and the measurement dimensions included attention, working memory, language fluency and executive function. Results The scores of each dimension of cognitive function in the treatment group were significantly improved compared with those before the intervention (P < 0.05), while the improvement in the control group was smaller. Comparison between groups showed that the scores of each cognitive function dimension in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group after the intervention (P < 0.05). See Table 1 for details. As can be seen from Table 1, the treatment group improved most significantly in the attention and executive function dimensions (P < 0.01), reaching 47.3±6.2 and 28.4±5.3 respectively, while the improvement in the control group was smaller, only improving to 38.5 ±5.9 and 22.0 ±4.8. In the dimensions of working memory and verbal fluency, the improvement in the treatment group was equally significant (P < 0.05), while the control group only showed a slight improvement. Discussion Expressive arts therapy has potential value in improving cognitive function in patients with schizophrenia, especially in the areas of attention and executive function. Multisensory art forms may provide an effective cognitive intervention path for patients by activating brain cognitive networks and improving information processing capabilities. Compared with conventional drug treatment, expressive arts therapy showed more comprehensive improvement effects. Funding No. 2021XZC006.