It’s Complementary Archives

Winter 2006- Art Therapy

To take a more active role in our own healthcare, or simply to help ourselves feel better, many of us look to complementary therapies to use in combination with the treatments suggested by our physicians. Each quarter, It’s Complementary will focus on one of these therapies.

Recent research from Northwestern Memorial Hospital found that art therapy can reduce a broad spectrum of symptoms related to pain and anxiety in cancer patients. In the study, published in the January 1, 2006 issue of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, cancer patients reported significant reductions in eight of nine symptoms measured by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale after spending an hour working on art projects of their choice. The symptoms included pain, tiredness, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, lack of appetite, well-being and shortness of breath. Of these, nausea was the only symptom that did not as a result of the art therapy session.

According to an author of the study, Judith Paice, PhD, RN, director of the Cancer Pain Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the study provides beginning evidence for the important role art therapy can play in reducing symptoms. “We wanted to see if the creative process involved in making art is healing and life-enhancing,” she says. “Art therapy provides a distraction that allows patients to focus on something positive instead of their health for a time and give patients something they can control.”