Effectiveness of art therapy on pain and anxiety in children undergoing invasive medical procedures

TL;DR

Art therapy significantly reduces pain and anxiety in children during medical procedures.

Contribution

Demonstrates art therapy's effectiveness as a non-pharmacological intervention for pediatric patients.

Findings

Pain scores decreased from 8.90 to 5.22 after art therapy.

Severe pain levels dropped from 97.6% to 12.2%.

Anxiety scores reduced from 9.24 to 5.27 post-intervention.

Abstract

The effectiveness of art therapy in reducing pain and anxiety in children aged 3-12 undergoing invasive medical procedures is of
interest. Hence, a one-group pretest-posttest design involved 41 participants receiving a 20-25 minute art therapy session. Results
showed significant reductions in pain (mean scores from 8.90 to 5.22) and anxiety (mean scores from 9.24 to 5.27) post-intervention.
Severe pain levels decreased from 97.6% to 12.2%, while severe anxiety dropped from 90.2% to 26.8%. Thus, we show art therapy as a
beneficial non-pharmacological intervention in pediatric care.