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RUHS, Jaipur, PB B.Sc Nursing Entrance-2021
Mental Health Nursing
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"Scheduled activity" therapy used for the patient with?

Appeared in: RUHS, Jaipur, PB B.Sc Nursing Entrance-2021

Explanation

  • Scheduled activity therapy, a form of Behavioral Activation, is a primary intervention for depression.
  • It works by breaking the cycle of inactivity, withdrawal, and low mood characteristic of depression.
  • The therapy focuses on scheduling activities that provide the patient with a sense of pleasure and/or mastery, thereby increasing contact with positive reinforcement.
  • This approach directly counteracts anhedonia (loss of interest) and avolition (lack of motivation), which are core symptoms of depression.

Why Other Options Were Wrong

  • Option A: While activity therapy is used for schizophrenia, its goal is different. It focuses on improving social skills, reality orientation, and developing work habits rather than specifically activating the patient to improve mood.
  • Option C: For a patient with mania, the goal of activity is to expend excess energy in a non-stimulating environment. Activities should be non-competitive and solitary to prevent escalating the patient's manic state.
  • Option D: The primary behavioral therapy for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). This involves exposing the patient to their obsessional triggers while preventing them from performing their compulsive rituals.

Related Visual

Visual explanation — Related Visual
Clinical Relevance
  • Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Application of Scheduled Activity Therapy in Psychiatry to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
  • Nurses play a crucial role in implementing behavioral activation by helping patients identify and schedule meaningful activities, no matter how small.
  • It is a patient-safety issue to apply the wrong type of activity therapy. Encouraging a highly stimulating group activity for a manic patient could worsen their condition.
  • What if? If a patient is so severely depressed that they refuse to get out of bed, the nurse should break the activity down into the smallest possible step (e.g., 'Let's try just sitting up on the side of the bed for 5 minutes') and provide positive reinforcement for the attempt, rather than pushing for the full activity.
How to Approach the Question
  • First, identify the core therapeutic intervention in the question, which is 'Scheduled activity' therapy.
  • Recall or deduce the clinical name and primary purpose of this therapy. 'Scheduled activity' is the key component of Behavioral Activation.
  • Consider the pathophysiology of each option. Depression is marked by low energy, anhedonia, and inactivity.
  • Evaluate how the therapy would apply to each condition. Scheduling activities to increase pleasure and mastery directly counters the core symptoms of depression.
  • Eliminate the other options by recalling the primary therapeutic goals for them: Mania requires de-stimulation, Schizophrenia requires reality-testing/social skills, and OCD requires Exposure and Response Prevention.
Concept Tested & Keywords
  • Concept Tested: Application of Scheduled Activity Therapy in Psychiatry
  • Stem keywords: Scheduled activity, therapy
  • Lead-in keywords: BEST, MOST RELEVANT CLUE
  • Negative lead-in flag: false

Question ID

Q52BTT-1G3yN8V-Lp9ukQ3

Reference Book

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) p. 9223-9225

E6 Guide to Mental Health & PSYCHIATRIC NURSING R Sreevani— Part 1 (pp 26-289 of 579) p. 163-165

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