Adolescent Female With Chronic Insomnia Disorder With Anxiety Symptoms: a Retrospective Case Analysis of Calligraphy Tracing From the Perspective of Narrative Psychology Based on Archived Clinical Medical Records
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Case Report
Abstract: Objective: This work retrospectively evaluates real-world clinical outcomes of calligraphy-tracing narrative psychology for a teenage female living with chronic insomnia alongside anxiety, drawing entirely from existing clinical file records. During intervention sessions, clinicians adopted well-known verses from Li Bai’s poem Early Departure from Baidi City as the core narrative medium; participant completed pre-printed calligraphy tracing rather than free-style handwriting creation. Methods: Clinical file data of one 17-year-old female adolescent presenting with chronic insomnia and co-occurring anxiety were reviewed in this retrospective case report. All three completed calligraphy-tracing narrative psychology sessions belonged to regular clinical service, not specially arranged research interventions. She had taken sertraline hydrochloride tablets and other medications continuously for three months previously, yet obtained limited symptom relief. Relevant information, including 14-item Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA-14) results, Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) scores, self-maintained sleep logs, and clinical consultation notes, were extracted retrospectively for case summarization. Results: Following three clinical sessions of calligraphy-tracing narrative psychology, this adolescent showed obvious relief of anxious feelings. Her time taken to fall asleep shortened greatly, and she could naturally drift off without any sedative-hypnotic drugs. Imagery carried within classical Chinese verses helped her put repetitive intrusive worries into external expression and build new, adaptive emotional stories. Improvements remained stable in clinical documentation collected at 4-week and 8-week follow-up visits. Importantly, the young patient herself picked the poetry tracing sheet out of dozens of available options instead of receiving therapist-assigned material. This choice reflected natural psychological alignment between poetic imagery and her inner emotional struggles. Conclusion: As a culturally rooted local psychological intervention tool, calligraphy-tracing narrative psychology shows practical clinical value for teenagers suffering from chronic insomnia combined with anxiety in routine clinical scenarios. The fact that patients get to choose their own tracing content acts as one meaningful clinical influencing factor. This practical method offers a usable non-drug reference scheme for youth mental-health service work.
DOI: 10.61784/jpmr3098
Language: English
Topic: Sleep and related disorders
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7223373513