| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 職能治療學系碩博士班 === 95 === Background: Previous studies have indicated that schizophrenic patients have poor psychomotor performance than their normal controls, and the existence of laterality (eye dominance and hand preference) differences between schizophrenic patients and normal controls. However, the influence of eye-hand dominance to psychomotor performance is still unclear. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether eye-hand dominance at the same side or not would differentiate the psychomotor performance of schizophrenic patients. The influence of patients’ demographic characteristics to their psychomotor performance was also analyzed.
Methods: A convenient sample of 74 schizophrenic patients was recruited at the National Cheng Kung University Hospital. All of them were right-handed. The subjects were classified into two groups (right-hand-right-eye and right-hand-left-eye) based on the results of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and the Hole-in-the-Hand Technique. Their symptom severity was rated by a psychiatrist using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. And their psychomotor performance was assessed by the Purdue Pegboard Manual Test, the Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test, and the Digit Symbol-Coding and the Symbol Search subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III. The study proposal was approved by the Ethical Committee for Human Research of the NCKUH.
Results: To ensure the psychomotor performance outcomes were normaly distributed, one outliner was excluded. The following analyses were conducted using the data of 73 subjects (32 men, 41 women). For the effects of demographic characters, results indicated different predictors for each of the three psychomotor assessments. Predictors for finger dexterity were identified as pychiatric symptom, age, duration of illness, and gender; for manual dexterity were psychiatric symptom and age; but none demographic variables were identified as predictors for processing speed. The results showed no significant differences on all psychomotor performance between the RHRE and RHLE groups. Additional analysis using gender, age and psychiatric symptom as covariances had showed the same results.
Conclusion: Though the relationship of eye-hand dominance consistency and psychomotor performance of schizophrenic patients was not found, there was a significant side-finding. Even very mild, psychiatric symptom was found to have impacts on the psychomotor performance of schizophrenic patients, especially on the finger and manual dexterity. Occupational therapists ought to consider patients’ symptoms while planning interventions in order to obtain optimal outcomes.
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