Cancer Nursing claim’s Creative arts therapy is to improve anxiety in children with cancer.
According to recent research published inCancer Nursing, the data collated from 83 pediatric patients with cancer between the ages of 3 and 17 years old: 37.3% had a blood cancer; 24.1% had a solid cancer and 38.6% had a central nervous system cancer.
The study aimed to compare the results of the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory symptom subscale — which rates symptoms such as pain and hurt, nausea, worry, cognitive problems, procedural anxiety, treatment anxiety, perceived physical appearance and communication — in patients who did not receive creative arts therapy (18 patients) versus those who did (65 patients).
Art is something which is so easy and that we all have at our fingertips to use every day, says study author, Jennifer L. Raybin, from Oregon Health & Sciences University, Schools of Nursing and Medicine, Pediatric Hematology Oncology, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, said in an interview with CURE®.
Raybin explained that there were two methods of art used. The first was creative arts therapy, which was guided by a licensed therapist who would also utilize psychotherapy methods, while the other was creative art interventions, which can be led by anyone. Children could choose what kind of art they wanted to take part in, ranging from music to drawing and clay sculpting.
The study findings showed that children who took part in four or more sessions the creative arts therapy tended to experience a significant reduction in anxiety.
That makes sense to me — being creative can help with anxiety, especially during cancer treatment said Raybin, explaining that children are generally scared about cancer-related treatments and tests. Children are so scared about these procedures, such as getting their port accessed or getting their peripheral IV. Which is anxiety for children about what’s to come.
Ideally, we would leverage the amazing creative arts therapist to train all of us and local artists on how to work with these children says Raybin. That would include offering the child a medium paint, sculpting clay, making music or moving their body.
Raybin also explained that her connection to art therapy is a personal one. She said that she grew up dancing, and that moving her body in a creative way made her feel better. So, she wanted to take that experience to her patients who are undergoing cancer treatment.
I don’t want them to be stuck in their infusion chairs, she said. I want them to be able to move and be creative through art such as writing, drawing, visual arts, music, or dance.
Raybin said that she is getting a grant from the National Institutes of Health to leverage art therapists to make creative art therapy scalable and more available in cancer treatment centers across the United States.
Art therapy is not only useful for children, but adults facing a cancer diagnosis may find it to be helpful in processing emotions.
In a 2023 interview with CURE®, Calliandra Perry, an art therapist from Henry Ford Health in Detroit said that, there is a lot of emotions which patients go through when they’re being diagnosed, going through treatment, living with cancer or if they hit that survivorship phase. It’s something which they can explore in a way that almost acts as mile markers for them.
READ MORE: Art as Cancer Therapy
Moving forward, Raybin said that she and her team will be leveraging art therapists to make the creative art therapy and intervention model more repeatable in cancer centers across the United States. While having a trained art therapist was incredible, she explained, to make it more scalable, she is hoping that nurses and other clinicians can offer art as a means to reduce patient anxiety. Offering art doesn’t have to be elaborate or (mean) getting an art therapist, but just some convenient art supplies, which children like doing, says Raybin. We know it helps patients feel better and then it will spread throughout other children in that treatment area as well.
