Art Therapy Intervention for Breast Cancer Patients

N/ACompletedNCT01220960

Dr. Sarkis Meterissian64 enrolled

Overview

As studies continue to debate the effects of quality of life on survival, increased attention is being focused on investigating complementary alternative therapies to boost overall total health in cancer patients . Art therapy is an interesting growing field, which has shown promise to positively influence quality of life in the pediatric and adult oncology population alike. As there is a paucity of well controlled complete studies in this field, the investigators propose to study the impact of art therapy sessions in women with breast cancer with quantitative and qualitative analysis of emotional health and physical symptoms. The results of the investigators study will have widespread applicability to oncology programs that wish to offer/implement such sessions to their palliative and non-palliative outpatients in an effort to address the important concept of whole person care.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Breast Cancer

Interventions

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Quality of Life (emotional distress, physical symptoms,self-efficacy and well-being)

To investigate whether the implementation of an 8 week art therapy course in post-operative outpatient breast cancer patients can alleviate/improve 1. Emotional distress as assessed by the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) (please see below for details) 2. Physical symptoms as assessed by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) 3. Meaning making as assessed by The Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12).

Time frame: 8 weeks

Secondary Outcomes

Ability to find and create meaning after the psychosocial impact of a breast cancer diagnosis

To investigate qualitatively how group art therapy can address the psychosocial impacts of breast cancer, including the challenges of finding and creating meaning following a recent diagnosis of breast cancer.