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

**Authors:** Bhasara Kalpana Ramji, Mahalakshmi B, Siva Subramanian N

PMC · DOI: 10.6026/973206300213843 · 2025-10-31

## 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.

## Key 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.

## Full-text entities

- **Diseases:** anxiety (MESH:D001007), pain (MESH:D010146)
- **Species:** Homo sapiens (human, species) [taxon 9606]

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Source: https://tomesphere.com/paper/PMC12859345