Abstract
BACKGROUND: Educators are at high risk of mental and psychological disorders due to high-intensity occupational pressure and emotional exhaustion. According to statistics, the prevalence of schizophrenia among teachers is approximately 0.5% to 0.8%, and about 70% of them are accompanied by a significant decline in working ability. Although conventional antipsychotic drugs can control some symptoms, their improvement in negative symptoms and drug side effects is limited. The combined nursing of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture can have potential advantages in improving core symptoms, reducing drug side effects and enhancing overall function by harmonizing Yin and Yang, soothing the liver and regulating qi, and calming the mind and soothing the spirit. Therefore, the study aims to evaluate through standardized scales and analyze the alleviating effect of traditional Chinese acupuncture combined with structured nursing intervention on the clinical symptoms and social functions of schizophrenia patients among educators, providing an integrated non-pharmaceutical intervention plan for mental rehabilitation. METHODS: A total of 90 educators who met the diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia were included in the study, with ages ranging from 25 to 50 years old. Participants were randomly divided into the intervention group (n = 45) and the control group (n = 45). The control group maintained the original antipsychotic drug treatment, while the intervention group received an 8-week intervention of traditional Chinese acupuncture combined with specialized nursing. Traditional Chinese acupuncture mainly involved acupoint selection for acupuncture, three times a week, with needles retained for 30 minutes each time. Nursing intervention includes weekly health education and social function rehabilitation training. The assessment tools adopted were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Social Disability Screening Schedule (SDSS). The assessment was conducted before the intervention (T0), after the intervention (week 8, T1), and 4 weeks after the intervention ended (follow-up point, T2). Data analysis was conducted using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), with p<.05 as the significance criterion. The Cohen’s d effect size was calculated to assess the size of the intervention effect. RESULTS: The total score of PANSS in the intervention group decreased from 82.6 ± 7.3 at T0 to 65.4 ± 6.8 at T1 (p<.001, d = 2.41), and remained stable at the follow-up point T2. Among them, PANSS improved particularly significantly (p<.01). The total score of SDSS intervention showed a significant improvement in social function, decreasing from 9.5 ± 2.1 at T0 to 6.2 ± 1.8 at T1 (p<.001, d = 1.71). In the control group, the changes in PANSS and SDSS scores during the same period were not significant (p>.05). Repeated measures analysis of variance further verified that the interaction between intervention time and group was significant (F = 15.84 for PANSS, p<.001; F = 12.63 for SDSS, p<.001). DISCUSSION: After 8 weeks of intervention with traditional Chinese acupuncture combined with specialized nursing, significant improvements were shown in the clinical symptoms and social functions of patients with schizophrenia among educators. Both the total PANSS score and the SDSS score decreased significantly compared with the baseline, and the improvement degree was significantly better than that of the conventional treatment group. The results show that the combination of medical acupuncture and specialized nursing can effectively alleviate the core symptoms of schizophrenia among educators, providing quantifiable non-pharmaceutical intervention basis for clinical rehabilitation. Future research can further explore the optimal cycle of intervention programs and the optimized combination of acupuncture and nursing modules, thereby providing support for formulating occupation-specific mental rehabilitation programs.