Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

Objectives：In order to explore effects of board-game therapy for cognitive rehabilitation in patients with schizophrenia, we investigated the change of executive cognitive function over a 2-month period of board-game therapy in patients with schizophrenia.

Methods：Two groups of chronic schizophrenic inpatients were participated in this study. One group(n=21) were treated with board-game therapy for 2 months and the other control group(n=19) were not treated. For the evaluation of the executive cognitive function, a Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST) was administered before and after the introduction of the board-game therapy. PANSS score change was also evaluated.

Result：At the beginning of this study, there was no significant difference in performance of cognitive function tests, demographical data or clinical severity between both patient groups. After 2 months of treatment with the board-game therapy, the board-game therapy group showed significant improvements of executive cognitive function without any significant change of their schizophrenic symptoms. On the contrary, there was no change in control group.

Conclusion：This study showed that a board-game therapy is effective for the enhancement of executive cognitive function in patients with chronic schizophrenia. A board-game therapy could be introduced with ease into psychiatric fields, such as inpatients’or outpatients’clinic wards and day hospital. Our result indicates that the board-game therapy is a promising tool for the enhancement of cognitive function, especially executive cognitive function and helpful for cognitive rehabilitation for schizophrenic patients.

Keywords Board-game therapy;Schizophrenia;Executive cognitive function;Wisconsin card shorting test (WCST);Cognitive rehabilitation.