GROUP ART-THERAPY FOR PEOPLE WITH PARANOID SCHIZOPHRENIA

Art-therapy is a field that still refines its theoretical concepts and intervention techniques. There are few controlled studies regarding art-therapy effectiveness in schizophrenia, and they reached conflicting conclusions. We aimed to conceive an art-therapy based short-term group intervention for paranoid schizophrenia patients and to measure its impact compared with other interventions. The study included 150 paranoid schizophrenia outpatients randomly distributed to three groups: art-therapy and standard pharmacological treatment, group activities and standard treatment, standard treatment alone. The participants were assessed using Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale, Beck's Hopelessness Scale, and Barron-Welsh Art Scale. The follow-up was done at 12 and 24 weeks from the initial assessment and it was focused on the differences between the three study arms. Hopefully, the findings will encourage practitioners to include art-therapy based interventions in complex rehabilitation algorithms for paranoid schizophrenia patients.