Effect of relaxation therapy and Vitamin C supplementation on stress and CD4 levels of mentall illness patients

Abstract

A significant increase in the number of mental disorders has been a phenomenon in the world, including Indonesia. It may indicate by the increasing number of the inpatients of mental hospitals. The study aims to determine the effect of the combination of psychosocial therapy and vitamin C on the stress and immunity level of patients with mental disorders. This study applied pre-experimental design on three groups in which each group consists of seven respondents with an assumption that 20% will be lost of follow up. The sampling technique is purposive sampling. The criteria of the respondents include patients with schizophrenia, adults and administered with the same antipsychotic medication. The intervention includes the 500 mg of vitamin C and relaxation technique for four weeks on a daily basis. The stress levels and immunity of the patients are measured at the end of each month. One-way ANOVA is employed as the data analysis technique. The results of analysis in stress levels and immune responses between the three groups after the intervention of Vitamin C and relaxation techniques showed a mean difference in each group. The F value of 1.534 and an associated p value of 0.234 for stress levels, and f value of 0.790 with p value of 0.469 statistically indicate the insignificant difference between the three groups. Meanwhile, during the interview as an assessment of stress levels, the second and third intervention groups were more cooperative compared to the first group. Respondents were more cooperative during mental status examination after the end of the second and third weeks, and showed an improvement in CD4 immunity (cluster of differentiation 4).