Impression Survey and Grounded Theory Analysis of the Development of Medication Support Robots for Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

Medication is a key treatment for patients with schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia tend to easily decrease medication adherence with long-term treatment. However, there is a chronic shortage of specialists who provide medication support, such as visiting nurses. In addition, these patients do not often use smartphones or PCs in their daily lives. Thus, schizophrenic patients need a direct approach in the physical world because they are unfamiliar with cyberspace. This study aims to improve the home treatment environment using robot technology that can approach in the physical world of schizophrenic patients who need medication support. In this study, collaboration between psychiatric nursing specialists and medical engineers investigated the interaction between communication robots and patients. The results showed that the robot was accepted by patients with schizophrenia as a talking partner. The amount of robot talking seemed to affect the impression of the robot on schizophrenics. Utterance process analysis showed that the smoothness of the conversation affected the relationship between robots and schizophrenics.