Social dramatics: social skills development for the chronically mentally ill. The use of modeling and role playing to increase social interaction among asocial psychiatric patients. Movement and drama therapy with long-stay schizophrenics.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of social dramatics as a clinical tool for teaching social skills to the chronically mentally ill on adult inpatient units of a state hospital. The research tested the hypothesis that patients exposed to social dramatics with videotape feedback would demonstrate greater ability to perform social skills as measured by the Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE-30). Fifteen schizophrenic adults of both sexes meeting specific criteria were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Subjects were exposed over an 8-week period to randomly introduced social dramatic scenarios. The Wilcoxin test for two independent samples was used for testing differences between experimental and control groups. The research findings supported the hypothesis for one positive factor, social competence. The findings did not support any treatment effect on either social interest and personal neatness or irritability, manifest psychosis, and psychotic depression. There were no significant differences on the total score NOSIE-30. Recommendations for psychiatric nursing are made. Limitations of research methodologies and sample size were addressed. nan nan
Randomised studies are possible in this field. The use of drama therapy for schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like illnesses should continue to be under evaluation as its benefits, or harms, are unclear.