Research Activities in the Department of Occupational Therapy

Even though the purpose of the services provided by occupational therapy is to help and to support the daily life of clients, the actual services extend to a wide range of daily activities. Thus, research in occupational therapy covers a wide range of activities which can be modified and changed according to the needs of clients. Research activities conducted by clinical psychologists and English teachers who staff the Department of Occupational Therapy at Aino University are also summarized below. [1. Research in Occupational Therapy for Physically Handicapped.] We are involved in a study of the efficient motion analysis in the activity of daily life (ADL) in part with the staff of the Department of Clinical Engineering. We analyze the muscle tone under various locomotive operations by quantifying muscle tone with surface electro-myography (EMG). We have studied the brain network related to memory and learning in the training tasks that enable effective learning skills and their clinical application

A community intervention trial of multimodal suicide prevention program in Japan: A Novel multimodal Community Intervention program to prevent suicide and suicide attempt in Japan, NOCOMIT-J

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To respond to the rapid surge in the incidence of suicide in Japan, which appears to be an ongoing trend, the Japanese Multimodal Intervention Trials for Suicide Prevention (J-MISP) have launched a multimodal community-based suicide prevention program, NOCOMIT-J. The primary aim of this study is to examine whether NOCOMIT-J is effective in reducing suicidal behavior in the community.</p> <p>Methods/DesignThis study is a community intervention trial involving seven intervention regions with accompanying control regions, all with populations of statistically sufficient size. The program focuses on building social support networks in the public health system for suicide prevention and mental health promotion, intending to reinforce human relationships in the community. The intervention program components includes a primary prevention measures of awareness campaign for the public and key personnel, secondary prevention measures for screening of, and assisting, high-risk individuals, after-care for individuals bereaved by suicide, and other measures. The intervention started in July 2006, and will continue for 3.5 years. Participants are Japanese and foreign residents living in the intervention and control regions (a total of population of 2,120,000 individuals).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The present study is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the community-based suicide prevention program in the seven participating areas.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN-CTR) UMIN000000460.</p

セイショウネン ノ ジサツ ヨボウ アイノ イリョウ フォーラム 2008 セイショウネン ノ ジサツ ヨボウ オ カンガエル オ カイサイシテ

2008年9月14日(日), 茨木市民会館大ホールにおいて, 学校法人藍野学院・医療法人恒昭会の主催で藍野医療フォーラム2008「青少年の自殺予防を考える」を開催しました. この日は「自殺予防週間(9月10日～16日)」でもあり, 医療・福祉関係者や教育関係者など幅広い分野から256名の方々にお集まりいただきました. 【1. はじめに】 さて, わが国では1998年に自殺者数が3万人台に急増して以来, 今日まで減少することがない状況が続いており社会問題になっています. 自殺対策基本法も制定されましたが, 依然として自殺問題や自殺予防に関する関心は浸透しているとは言い難く, むしろタブー視する傾向があります. また, 青少年をとりまく社会の状況は, めまぐるしく変化しています. このような中で, 一部の青少年は人間関係がうまくもてずに, うつ, 引きこもり, 不登校, リストカット, 自殺に至る場合もみられるようになってきました. 本フォーラムを開催することによって, 多くの人に関心を持ってもらうこと, 自殺を取り巻く現状を知ってもらう機会になるようにと私たちは考えていま

Behavior, cognition, and future direction of psychiatry

The human behavior and cognition are the two most important functions for human life in the society. The cognitive function is declined in the elderly, but it is not always the case. Fluid intelligence may decline along with aging but crystalized intelligence can be maintained even in the elderly. In addition to neurocognitive disorders (dementia), cognitive function is impaired with various psychiatric disorders and it will be the main target for future psychiatry. Due to the knowledge obtained from the recent development in brain mapping, psychiatrists can perceive and understand the meaning of the psychiatric symptoms based upon the dysfunction of these networks. Subjective experience of the patients should be paid more attention by closer collaboration between psychiatrists/ researchers and patients/ families. Elucidating the brain network representing common sense will be important. Psychiatrists are recommended to expand the range of the frame of their common sense to be able to understand the meaning of the patient behavior

The sleep habits in labors : Dissatisfaction of sleep in shift workers

Characteristics of sleep in workers and distinction of sleep in shift workers were investigated in this study by using data obtained through sleep questionnaires. 20% to 25% workers in all subjects had some troubles in their sleep for the points of sleep latency, sleep time and subjective satisfactions with sleep. Over 20% of subjects experienced disturbed day-time activities and 20% subjects in all subjects assessed their sleep bad or very bad. 80 subjects (5.8%) showed short sleep time less than 5 hour. The subjects who had sleep time of less than 6 hour were significantly higher in shift workers in comparison to day-time workers. The number of subjects who had trouble sleeping, lack of good sleep out of bed and difficulty to leave from bed over 7 days during the past month was significantly increased in shift workers comparison to that in day-time workers. The number of subjects who assessed their sleep bad or very bad in shift workers was significantly increased compare with that of day-time workers