Effectiveness of Occupational Therapy along with Coping Strategies on Auditory Hallucination and Occupational Functioning in Schizophrenia

Background: Auditory hallucinations are the most common symptoms to occur in schizophrenia. About 70% of schizophrenics have auditory hallucinations termed as Schneider?s First Rank Symptoms (SFRS). Persistent auditory hallucination interferes with one?s ability to engage in self-care, work and leisure tasks thereby making it difficult to engage in meaningful tasks or relationships. Occupational Therapists also work with patients having diagnosed with schizophrenia. Although the topic of hallucinations has been widely addressed in psychiatry literature, it has been ignored in the occupational therapy literature. Usually, Occupational Therapists that work with patients having psychosocial dysfunctions evaluate for hallucinations as a part of the mental status examination and provide a general intervention for the patient i.e. we do not include any specific intervention plan for hallucination in particular. So in this study, we will try to use some of the coping strategies as an adjunct to conventional occupational therapy to see if it is effective on auditory hallucinations and their occupational functioning in chronic schizophrenic patients. Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the Effectiveness of occupational therapy along with coping strategies on auditory hallucination and occupational functioning in schizophrenia. Method: 22 patients of schizophrenia with auditory hallucination were recruited and were divided 11 each into control and experimental group. The control group received conventional occupational therapy while the experimental group received coping strategies along with conventional occupational therapy for six weeks. The changes in dimensions of auditory hallucination and occupational functioning were assessed on PSYRATS-AH and COTE scales respectively pre and post intervention. Results: It revealed statistical significance in both PSYRATS-AH and COTE pre and post test in the experimental group (pless than0.000). The post test scores for PSYRATS-AH were 39.00 (SD 1.67) for control group and 13.82 (SD 3.66) for experimental group. The post test scores for COTE were 82.18 (SD 5.27) for control group and 52.00 (SD 9.18) for experimental group. Conclusion: Auditory hallucination reduced and Occupational functioning improved in the experimental group which indicates that Occupational Therapy is effective along with coping strategies.