Art Therapy in a Palliative Care Unit: Symptom Relief and Perceived Helpfulness in Patients and Their Relatives

Creative arts therapies aim to expand conventional palliative care interventions by making clinical care more holistic.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the benefits of an art therapy intervention in a tertiary hospital palliative care unit, directly in adult cancer inpatients and indirectly in their relatives.

We evaluated the intensity of pain, anxiety, depression, and well-being using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale before and after the first, third, and fifth art therapy sessions. After the third and fifth sessions, perceived helpfulness was assessed via a questionnaire developed by the palliative care team, combining open-ended questions and a checklist. We categorized the narrative data into three predetermined types: generally helpful (some positive experience), helpfulness related to a dyadic relationship (patient-art therapist), and helpfulness related to a triadic relationship (patient-image-art therapist).

We observed a significant reduction in anxiety, depression, and pain as well as a significant increase in well-being at each of the time points evaluated. Ninety-eight percent of the patients considered the art therapy helpful, which could be categorized as generally helpful in 54.8%, related to a triadic relationship in 32.9%, and to a dyadic relationship in 12.3%. Relatives gave similar opinions regarding the effects on patients and, in addition, reported an indirect helpful effect for themselves. The most frequently selected experiences from the checklist were feeling calm, being entertained, and expressing and communicating emotions.

This art therapy intervention was beneficial in reducing symptom intensity. Almost all the participants directly or indirectly involved in the creative art process considered it helpful. They reported a wide variety of sensory, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual experiences.