Anthroposophic art therapy in chronic disease: a four-year prospective cohort study.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Anthroposophic art therapy (painting, clay modeling, music, and speech exercises) is used in 28 countries but has not yet been studied in primary care. OBJECTIVE: To study clinical outcomes in patients treated with anthroposophic art therapy for chronic diseases. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING: Fifty-four medical practices in Germany. PARTICIPANTS AND INTERVENTIONS: One hundred sixty-one consecutive outpatients (primary care n = 150), aged 5-71 years, were treated by 52 different art therapists. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Disease and symptom scores (physician and patient assessment, respectively, 0-10) and quality of life (adults SF-36 Health Survey, children KINDL Questionnaire for Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents). Outcomes were measured after 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months; SF-36 and symptom scores were also measured after 48 months. RESULTS: Most common indications were mental disorders (60.9% of patients, primarily depression, fatigue, and anxiety) and neurological diseases (6.8%). The median number of therapy sessions was 15; median therapy duration was 161 days. All outcomes except KINDL improved significantly between baseline and all subsequent follow-ups. Improvements from baseline to 12 months were disease score from (mean +/- standard deviation) 6.69 +/- 1.72 to 2.46 +/- 1.90 (P < .001), symptom score from 5.99 +/- 1.69 to 3.40 +/- 2.08 (P < .001), SF-36 physical component summary measure from 44.12 +/- 10.03 to 48.68 +/- 9.47 (P < .001), and SF-36 mental component summary measure from 35.07 +/- 12.23 to 42.13 +/- 11.51 (P < .001). All these improvements were maintained until last follow-up. CONCLUSION: Patients receiving anthroposophic art therapy had long-term reduction of chronic disease symptoms and improvement of quality of life.