Assessing the potential of submaximal extended duration exercise as an adjunct treatment for sub-acute schizophrenic in-patients: a pilot study
- Authors: Munnik, James Barry
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Aerobic exercises -- Therapeutic use , Schizophrenia , Schizophrenia -- Treatment , Exercise therapy
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:3029 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002538 , Aerobic exercises -- Therapeutic use , Schizophrenia , Schizophrenia -- Treatment , Exercise therapy
- Description: Research into the therapeutic potential of aerobic exercise has proven fruitful over the past few years; however, no true experimental research undertakings have investigated the psychological benefits of aerobic exercise with schizophrenic semi-acute in-patients. The main objective of this thesis was to seek out evidence for the possibility that aerobic (submaximal long duration) exercise could be considered an adjunct treatment for hospitalised schizophrenic in-patients. In order to accomplish this objective the effects of a 45-minute walking programme, completed three days a week, for five weeks, was investigated. Various areas of mental health were explored in search of evidence of the therapeutic potential of aerobic exercise. These areas included, amongst other things: transfer and discharge rates, improvements in mood levels - Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, and Brown, 1996) Xhosa version; decreasing of anxiety levels (Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck and Steer, 1993), Xhosa version); improved Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF; DSM-IV), Scale Scores; and decreases in the number of symptoms patients exhibited. 22 schizophrenic inpatients were randomly selected for this study and randomly assigned to either an aerobic (long duration submaximal) treatment group or (primarily anaerobic) control group. Results revealed that statistical significance could not be found in any of the treatment group's t-test results; despite the treatment group generally bordering on significance more so than the control group. Out of the five variables studied (Positive Symptoms, Negative Symptoms, BAI, BDI-II, and GAF Scale) three variables (Negative Symptoms, BDI-II, and GAF Scale) in the treatment group bordered more on significance than did the control group. Thus three (60 %) out of the five areas studied revealed that the treatment group had more significant results. This suggests an overall impression that the treatment group responded slightly better. The Researcher recommended that aerobic exercise therapy be considered a treatment protocol in psychiatric institutions and offered further suggestions pertaining to the effective implementation of these programmes. Included in these recommendations were motivational strategies and warnings about the possible negative effects of exercise therapy. A supplemental goal of this thesis was to explore all of the previously offered theoretical psychological mechanisms of positive mental change; and to seek out evidence, for or against these forces. Participants were given pre- and post- treatment quantitative interviews; as well as, qualitative posttreatment interviews where their phenomenological responses were analysed to seek out evidence of these mechanisms. Evidence of various causative factors was found and a new theoretical mechanism was proposed in this thesis.
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- Date Issued: 2006
Intersubjectivity and the schizophrenic experience: a hermeneutic phenomoneological exploration of being-in-relation
- Authors: Bradfield, Bruce Christopher
- Date: 2006
- Subjects: Schizophrenia , Intersubjectivity
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2940 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002449 , Schizophrenia , Intersubjectivity
- Description: This research project has its origin and motivation in work done by Lysaker, Johannesen and Lysaker (2005), which explored the experience of being as a person with schizophrenia in relation to other individuals. The researchers examined the nature of the schizophrenic experience from within the framework of the dialogical model of self, and presented schizophrenic intersubjectivity as a potentially horrifying and disintegrating experience. Lysaker et al (2005) discuss the notion that the individual self unfolds as a composite structure of multiple selves, existing in dialogical interaction with one another. Their research aimed to show that the individual with schizophrenia experiences difficulty tolerating this dialogue on an intrapsychic level. Because interpersonal exchange requires that individuals adopt a variety of self-other modes of relatedness, suggest Lysaker et al, interpersonal engagement for the person with schizophrenia is disclosed as profoundly threatening (ibid.) Moving from the above-mentioned research, this project aims through a hermeneutic phenomenological process to clarify and narrate the subtleties of the intersubjective experience, as that experience is disclosed in the lived world of a person with schizophrenia. How does such an individual experience self in relation to other? How does such an individual negotiate their sense of self in terms of their dialogicality? The phenomenological hermeneutic method, as shaped by such theorists as Gadamer (1976), Heidegger (1962) and Buber (1970), will emerge as the interpretive platform upon which these questions are approached.
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- Date Issued: 2006