How to choose pictures in the rooms of seriously ill patients? The individual order-made pleasing pictures can be cost effective? -A pilot study was made.
Methods : Thirty-five terminally ill inpatients individually chose a pleasing picture to look at for 15 minutes. Before and after observation of the chosen picture, Profile of Mood States questionnaires (POMS), pulse, blood pressure, chromogranin A in the saliva, natural killer (NK) cell activity, and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) were provided.
Results : The overall characters of pictures were bright-colored, gentle-lined, representational, which were often landscapes, with a positive content. The scores of POMS indicated ; the observation decreased tension-anxiety, depression, anger, fatigue and confusion, increased vigor, decreased salivary chromogranin A concentrations. Natural killer cell activity was associated with picture types.
Conclusion : Viewing self-selected pleasing pictures improved patients' psychological state, and may have reduced sympathetic nervous system tone, but did not statistically enhance immunity. Pictures in the rooms of seriously ill patients should be chosen to enhance their physiological and psychological well-being but not give memories which may modulate activity of adrenocorticotropic hormone axis. Individual order-made pleasing pictures have high potential to be cost effective. Further research should be required to investigate.

View full abstract

Background : The improvement of healthcare surroundings for seriously ill inpatients has often been ignored. Plants are getting to be recognized as a good healing resource. However, in Japan they are utilized mostly in outpatient areas to compensate for outpatient complaints created by long waiting times, and few plants are utilized for inpatients. Furthermore, to extend health service resources, artificial plants could also be beneficial. However, little is known on psychological, physiological, and immunological effects of artificial plants for their implementation to hospital environments for those inpatients.
Subjects : 24 healthy college students. They were divided into two groups evenly (male =10, female = 2 in each group) .
Methods : The first group was brought to Rainforest Cafe, Chiba, Japan. The second group was brought to Tanzawa Forest, Kanagawa, Japan. Subjects in both groups were instructed to sit silently in the surroundings for 60 minutes. Psychological, physiological, and immunological data were taken at three time points : at baseline ; immediately after the intervention ; 60 minutes after the intervention.
Analysis : Student's t, ANOVA were utilized in the condition of α=0.05.
Results, Discussion and Conclusion : In both forest environments, all markers were improved, though the natural forest environment was statistically better than artificial forest environment. Artificial plants could be considered as a helpful health resource in hospitals too. Further study is recommended to compare artificial forest environment with non forest environment, for example, hospital rooms, to remove the effect of just sitting.

View full abstract

The clinical course of Hashimoto's thyroiditis was investigated. 130 patients (2 men and 128 women) were analyzed from their medical records retrospectively. Patients were diagnosed as having Hashimoto's thyroiditis based on the presence of a diffuse goiter and positive antithyroglobulin and/or antimicrosomal antibodies. 44 of the 130 patients became hypothyroid and 37 of these 44 patients were treated with levothyroxine sodium. On the contrary, the remaining 86 patients remained euthyroid during the follow-up. In 13 of the 130 patients, the serum concentration of TSH was decreased under detectable limit, which was defined to be “TSH suppression.” In 12 of these 13 patients, “TSH suppression” was transient. After “TSH suppression, ” 8 became euthyroid. The remaining 4 developed overt hypothyroidism and replacement therapy was initiated. The one of the 13 patients developed Basedow disease, whose “TSH suppression” was persistent. It was shown that among the 130 patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, only 37 (28%) needed replacement therapy. We also showed that “TSH suppression” occurred in 10% of the patients with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and that “TSH suppression” is highly indicative of subsequent TSH elevation. Frequent examination of thyroid function is necessary especially after “TSH suppression” during the follow-up of Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Euthyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis should be considered as “mibyou of thyroid dysfunction.” Repeated measurement of TSH is important to evaluate the necessity of treatment.

View full abstract