Art therapy for people with dementia Deshmukh, Sunita R; Holmes, John; Cardno, Alastair
Cochrane database of systematic reviews,
09/2018, Volume:
9
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Art therapy is defined by the British Association of Art Therapists as: "a form of psychotherapy that uses art media as its primary mode of communication. Clients who are referred to an art therapist ...need not have experience or skill in art. The art therapist is not primarily concerned with making an aesthetic or diagnostic assessment of the client's image. The overall aim of its practitioners is to enable a client to change and grow on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment". Historically, drawings and paintings have been recognised as a useful part of therapeutic processes within psychiatric and psychological specialties, and this has been acknowledged within medical and neurology-based disciplines.Arts-based therapies are generally considered as interventions managing manifestations of dementia, as they may help to slow cognitive deterioration, address symptoms related to psychosocially challenging behaviours and improve quality of life.
To review the effects of art therapy as an adjunctive treatment for dementia compared with standard care and other non-pharmacological interventions.
We identified trials from ALOIS - the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group's Specialised Register - on 12 May 2014, 20 March 2015, 15 January 2016, 4 November 2016, and 4 October 2017. We also handsearched the grey literature and contacted specialists in the field and authors of relevant reviews or studies to enquire about other sources of relevant information.
All randomised controlled trials examining art therapy as an intervention for dementia.
Two review authors independently extracted data. We examined scales measuring cognition, affect and emotional well-being, social functioning, behaviour and quality of life.
We found two studies that met the inclusion criteria, incorporating data on a total of 60 participants (from 88 randomised), in experimental groups (n = 29) and active control groups (n = 31). One study compared group art therapy with simple calculation activities over 12 weeks. The other study compared group art therapy with recreational activities over 40 weeks. It was not possible to pool the data for analysis from the included studies, due to heterogeneity in terms of differences in the interventions, control treatments and choice of outcome measures.In both studies there were no clear changes reported between the intervention group and the control group in the important outcome measures. According to GRADE ratings, we judged the quality of evidence for these outcome measures to be 'very low'.
There is insufficient evidence about the efficacy of art therapy for people with dementia. More adequately-powered and high-quality studies using relevant outcome measures are needed.
Editorial Scott, Whittaker
International journal of art therapy,
03/2018, Volume:
23, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
My tenure as the editor of IJAT:Inscape has now come to an end. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to perform this role over the last three years. I am pleased to announce that Susan Carr, Alex ...McDonald and Neil Springham will be acting as joint editors in the interim period before the new editor is appointed through the interview process.
To investigate the effects of visual art therapy (VAT) on cognitive and psychological outcomes and explore the crucial design characteristics of VAT that might be associated with greater cognitive ...benefits among older adults.
Systematic review and meta-analysis.
Peer reviewed articles were searched from Medline, EMBASE, Global Health, Cochrane Library, Ovid Nursing database, PsycINFO, British Nursing Index, and CINAHL Complete from inception of the databases to September 2019.
This review and meta-analysis was conducted and reported according to preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to examine the risk of bias of the studies. Narrative synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis were performed.
Twelve articles published between 2004-2019 involving 831 participants were identified. VAT significantly improved global cognitive function compared with different control groups (Hedges' g = 0.348 95% CI = 0.026-0.671, p = .034, I
= 66.570%). VAT also demonstrated psychological benefits in reducing depressive symptoms and anxiety. By systematic comparison of the intervention designs, it seems that those with greater cognitive benefit involved a higher level of creativity and optimized the use of essential components including art education, reminiscence, art processing, cognitive evaluation, art crafts/modelling, and socialization.
Visual art therapy could be effective in improving cognitive functions and the associated psychological symptoms. Therefore, it can be adopted as an effective non-pharmacological intervention for preventing cognitive decline and dementia.
This review answers the key question about the pooled effect of VAT as nonpharmacological therapy on preventing or managing dementia. In addition, it informs on the design characteristics of an effective VAT for implementing among older adults. This research will have an impact on the gerontological care and support the evidence about non-pharmacological approaches to prevent and manage dementia.
Cognitive degeneration and agitated behavior symptoms of dementia in older adults are the main causes of disability and inability and increase the cost of medical care. Agitated behavior symptoms of ...dementia are the main causes of early institutionalization and make caregivers exhausted.
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of art therapy and reminiscence therapy on the alleviation of agitated behaviors in older adults with dementia.
An experimental research design with two experimental groups and one comparison group was conducted to examine the effects for each group on agitated behaviors. Participants were recruited from two dementia care centers in central and northern Taiwan. The study included 54 older individuals who met the sampling criteria and completed the data collection process. The participants were randomly allocated into the art therapy group (n = 24), the reminiscence therapy group (n = 22), and the comparison group (n = 8). The intervention consisted of 50-minute sessions conducted weekly for 12 weeks. Regular activities were continued in the comparison group. The structured questionnaires were completed, and observations of agitated behaviors were collected before the intervention and at 1 and 6 weeks after the intervention.
Significant differences were found in agitated behavior symptoms at the three time points in the art therapy group, whereas reminiscence therapy was found to have had a clear and immediate effect on decreasing agitated behavior. The generalized estimating equation exchange model test revealed a significant and sustained, postintervention effect of art therapy on agitated behavior. In contrast, no significant and sustained effect on agitated behavior was observed in the reminiscence therapy group.
The findings of this study support that art therapy may have a positive effect on dementia-associated agitated behaviors in institutionalized older adults. Reminiscence therapy activities conducted weekly for 50 minutes each session did not reach statistically significant implications. It is suggested that future studies consider conducting art and reminiscence therapies for a 16-week duration with two weekly sessions to evaluate the effectiveness of the therapy. The duration of follow-up should be extended as well in future studies.
Expanding upon art therapist Susan Buchalter's celebrated 250 Brief, Creative& Practical Art Therapy Techniques, this follow-up book provides 200 more art exercises clinicians can use in art therapy ...and psychotherapy groups.
Editorial Scott, Whittaker
International journal of art therapy,
12/2017, Volume:
22, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
This issue presents four diverse articles which I believe reflect something of the diversity in contemporary Art Therapy itself: Boram Park presents a study relating to Art Therapy training; Dafna ...Regev and Rotem Patishi describe a structured approach to studying mothers and children drawing together; Susan Hogan, David Sheffield and Amelia Woodward offer a literature review of arts and Art Therapy within an antenatal and postnatal care context; and Tim Wright and Tanya Andrew describe a pilot of a clinical intervention.
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