The patients themselves choose between several treatment options. The aim of the project is to increase the quality of life and improve the success of treatment.
“Gimme five!”: Take Five For Life offers a choice of five therapy options.Copyright: Karin Kaiser / MHH
15.02.2023
The Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the Hannover Medical School (MHH) is breaking new ground in the treatment of patients with schizophrenia: In the outpatient care project Take Five For Life, patients select a suitable range of therapies. They can choose between five options: sports, art, music therapy, psychological group psychotherapy or treatment in the polyclinic. “We want to find out whether more individualised measures increase the quality of life and improve the success of treatment,” explains project leader Professor Dr. Tillmann Krüger. The participants continue an already existing drug therapy parallel to the project. The clinic is still looking for participants for the project. A private donation of 500,000 euros makes the three-year project possible.
Doing things that bring joy
Schizophrenia is a mental illness from the group of psychoses. It occurs in phases. Those affected then suffer, for example, from hallucinations and delusions, hear voices or feel persecuted. It is estimated that about one percent of the population in Germany is affected by schizophrenia. The disease is a great burden for the affected people and their social environment. “Patients treated on an outpatient basis are often poorly integrated in society and feel lonely,” says Professor Krüger. “Many of them are also impotent and have little joy in life.” This is where the Take Five For Life supply project comes in. It is intended for people who have gone through an acute phase of illness. For six months, they will receive a 90-minute therapy hour once a week, during which they will do something that they like to do, that suits their interests and that gives them pleasure.
Studies of the remuneration system
“It is an additional offer to standard treatment, which should help to achieve the therapy goals more effectively,” explains PhD student and project coordinator Saskia Hamers. The team headed by Professor Krüger wants to find out whether self-chosen measures can improve the well-being of schizophrenic patients and, as a result, reduce the risk of re-hospitalisation. In addition, Take Five For Life is linked to other research aspects. In her doctoral thesis, Saskia Hamers investigates the neural mechanisms of schizophrenia. This is about the reward system in the brain. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), she examines the brain structure and brain activity of schizophrenic and healthy subjects and compares them with each other. “I want to gain insight into how schizophrenia affects the reward system and how it affects the reward system.
Project is financed by donation
Take Five For Life has been made possible for three years thanks to a private donation of 500,000 euros. The anonymous donor has a son who suffers from schizophrenia that progresses slowly and can hardly be treated. The personal experiences and knowledge of the limited treatment options for schizophrenia have led to the desire to support the care and research with a donation. The project Take Five For Live seemed very suitable to the donor.
There are still places available
Take Five For Life starts this spring with the optional therapy offerings of sports, art, music therapy, psychological group psychotherapy or treatment in the polyclinic. For the project, the Department of Psychiatry, Social Psychiatry and Psychotherapy is still looking for participants from the Hanover region. Further information on the project is available at www.take5forlife.de. Interested parties can register under the e-mail address take5forlife@mh-hannover.de.