The purpose of the present study was to qualitatively investigate the drug-addiction recovery process of users of a Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center. Four males had been drug-free more than 3 years. The subjects of this study were four males, ranged from 23-41 years. Data was collected via one or two times of semi-structured interviews. Content analysis of the interview data revealed that subjects experienced four unique psycho/emotional phases during their recovery process as following; The first phase was characterized by "extreme physical and emotional suffering". The second phase was characterized by "anguish by facing the problem in the way of living", the third phase by the "desire and taking action toward recovery", the fourth phase by "self-acceptance and a growing will to live". This recovery process was recessive rather than linear. While passing through these phases sequentially, they sometimes reverted back to the 2nd or 3rd phase when they encountered crises. All subjects had been feeling that they had attained a higher level of existence by facing and coping with their personal crisis. The following factors had been supporting their recovery process; confronting with own problem, being supported by colleague, putting faith in a higher source of power, participating to the Drug Addiction Rehabilitation Center.

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The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the essence of the lived experience of women hospitalized for treatment of eating disorders and to consider how nurses can be more effective in caring for theses patients. Six Japanese women, admitted to psychiatric units and diagnosed with eating disorders, were interviewed. Data were analyzed using Colaizzi's (1978) method of phenomenology. Five themes of experience with eating disorders were extracted and clustered; (1) Perfect self-image vs. Negative self-image; (2) Inability to control overeating and self-induced vomiting or refusing foods; (3) Conflicted relationships with parents; (4) Chronic loneliness and fear of intimacy; (5) Aversion to or fear of sex. Three themes of experience with being in hospital for treatment were extracted and clustered; (1) Despair of themselves or loneliness; (2) Desire to recover; (3) Superficial relationship with medical staffs whom participants want to trust. It was clear that the women experienced conflicted feelings throughout their lives and that these conflicts were reinforced by their relationships with the hospital staffs. Patients showed irritation with both themselves and the nurses as they were unable to articulate their own conflicted feelings. Nurses need to understand the patients' experiences and their responses to these experiences in order to intervene effectively.

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The purpose of this paper was to clarify characteristics of "emotional experience" that crime victims experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder went through during the recovery process, and to identify aspects of emotional experience influencing the recovery. Unstructured interviews were performed with 10 patients who had supplied informed consent in consideration of ethical issues. The data was analyzed using qualitative and inductive methods. The patients were then divided into "recovering" and "non-recovering" groups based on the changes of Impact of Event Scale-Revised points, and these groups were compared. The following results were acquired to form a suggestion to the mental-health nursing in the community. 1. The emotional experience were classified into Eight categories, as follows: 1) Emotional experience toward the damage; 2) Emotional experience toward the police; 3) Emotional experience toward the trial; 4) Painful experience after the damage; 5) Emotional experience during the recovery; 6) Emotional experience in relationship to family; 7) Emotional experience in relationship to friends; 8) Emotional experience in relationship to society. This clarified that "The entire aspect of the emotional experiences of crime victims throughout the recovery process" in order to understand the object better. 2. The results discovered that "fear that a patient's safety was threatened" was the characteristic emotional experience of the non-recovering group, while "anger towards the assailants" was the characteristic emotional experience of the recovering group.

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In recent psychiatric institutions where early discharge is enforced, the existence of so-called "difficult patients" has become a most critical issue for the psychiatric nursing. The aim of this study is firstly to describe what happened between a female difficult patient and a nurse researcher and then to analyze the dynamics of relationship between them. Subject was a woman in her late fifties with diagnosis of depression who rejected to eat, to move and even to urinate by herself, whose arms and legs had become stiff, but screamed out in anger all the time. The fieldwork was done weekly for fifty one days in total and the researcher involved herself in her care. Details of the interaction process were recorded in fieldnotes and were discussed regularly in debriefing sessions under the supervision. As a result, both of the patient and the researcher had to go through a big turmoil before she eventually freed from the clinging to things and nurses. The patient's clinging to a bed and then a wheel chair was analyzed to be the defense against the separation anxiety. And her persistent physical demands were discussed to be distorted 'Amae' whose sadistic/tyrant-like nature made nurses feel uncomfortable, being disgraced and even offended. The results suggest "the difficult patients" may have the life history full of traumatic experiences of object loss so that they were luck of the feelings of secure bond with their caretakers and have profound fear of abandonment by them.

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The purpose of this study was to describe factors which are effective in dealing with community re-integration care for prolonged long-stay patients in a psychiatric hospital. Subjects were six nurses who worked in a hospital where a modified therapeutic community in Japan was successfully implemented. Data was collected through interviews using semi- structured questionnaires which were analyzed inductively. Results showed that 12 factors were extracted from 221 codes. 1) The top leader who cooperated with staffs and patients to promote community re-integration care. 2) Nurses' motivation and values changed. 3) Nurses reflected on the basis of psycho-dynamics. 4) Patients showed their potential abilities. 5) Family members' attitudes toward patients changed. 6) Peoples' behavior in the community changed. 7) They had systems in order to promote community re-integration directly. 8) They had systems in order to promote community re-integration indirectly. 9) They had systems in order to promote the growth of the care team. 10) Nurses brought out positive and healthy responses from patients and supported everyone. 11) Nurses took care of family members. 12) Nurses explored the way of living after discharge from the hospital with patients, family members and other staffs. Above all, the study showed that the most important factor was nurses' change in motivation and values which somehow was associated with patients' display of their potential abilities.

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