The Effects of Cooking Activities and Social Skills Training on Schizophrenics - A Comparison of Cognitive Function and Social Competence -

Elements of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) involving cooking activities and social skills training (SST) were conducted with schizophrenic patients in day care and examined for efficacy. One session per week was conducted for a six-month period with six individuals in the cooking activities group and five individuals in the SST group. As a result, the cooking activities group indicated a significant improvement in working memory, verbal fluency, and overall cognitive function scores. Social competencies improved in “cleaning or tidying up of the living room”, “interpersonal relationships”, “work”, “cooperativeness”, and “understanding of procedures”. No significant changes were observed in the SST group. We propose that inclusion of CR elements in traditional occupations such as cooking is effective for treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenics. Original Paper 55 Hiroaki Ohno and Keiko Inoue whether or not the effects spread to social competence [10]. In contrast, occupational therapy using a wide range of activities such as handicrafts, sports, and hobby activities is performed in existing conventional rehabilitation, day care, and inpatient facilities. Handicrafts, as a means of occupational therapy, are believed to require various cognitive abilities such as attentiveness, concentration, comprehension, ability to plan, memory, and problem solving skills according to activity analyses conducted by occupational therapists [11]. However, there are almost no reports investigating the effects of activities on cognitive impairment in psychiatric occupational therapy; thus, therapeutic strategies have not been established because of difficulties associated with the evaluation of cognitive impairment. However, a clinically simple and practical way of assessing cognitive impairment was published in, The Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia-Japanese language version (BACS-J) by Kaneda et al. [12]. The capacity of schizophrenic patients to carry out work is quite strongly related to cognitive function [13]. Schizophrenics are likely to exhibit marked cognitive impairment when performing activities [14]. Furthermore, by incorporating errorless learning and overlearning based on learning theories, staff members can provide support that focuses on methods for improving or compensating for cognitive impairment, which may be put to use as CR in existing day care programs and occupational therapy [15]. This study assessed how conducting CR using cooking activities affected cognitive functioning and social competence in schizophrenic individuals who lived alone and benefited from day care. Diet is a useful form of motivation for people living alone because it is important for maintaining good health and bringing coherence to their daily lives. Consequently, this study investigated whether social and cognitive functioning could be improved through the process of learning skills and acquiring knowledge related to cooking. However, SST was conducted as psychosocial support for schizophrenics. Iwata et al. [16] reported “SST in addition to cognitive function training” to improve social skills and increase cognitive functioning. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of SST in addition to cognitive function training with cooking activities, including CR training elements, and verify the differences in therapeutic effects. Thus, depending on differences in the area affected, we propose that conducting comprehensive rehabilitation that combines psychosocial programs, such as existing occupational therapy and SST, is an effective way to support schizophrenic patients as they transition from hospital to becoming engaged in activities of regional life.