Systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of group painting therapy on the negative emotions of depressed adolescent patients.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: There are not many drugs for teen depression, and many antidepressants are not recommended for people under the age of 14 years. Thus, cognitive behavioral therapy, such as art therapy, is widely used in the treatment of adolescent depression. Group painting therapy (GPT) is a psycho-art treatment that allows the artist to engage in the creative process of painting. METHODS: Chinese and English databases were searched with a combination of words, including "Adolescent depression", "Group painting therapy", "Art therapy", and "Depression". A meta-analysis of the literature was carried out using the Cochrane system (RevMan 5.3). RESULTS: Six randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this study, of which 4 (66.66%) adopted the correct random assignment method, and 1 (16.67%) adopted a hidden detailed assignment scheme. One (16.67%) article adopted a blind method to evaluate the results. After GPT, depressed adolescent patients' positive emotion scores improved significantly [mean deviation (MD) =4.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) (3.79, 5.45), P<0.01] as did patients' negative emotion scores [MD =-1.88, 95% CI (-2.29, -1.46), P<0.01]. Patients' cognitive function and executive ability were also significantly improved by GPT. DISCUSSION: The results of our systematic evaluation and meta-analysis confirmed that GPT significantly improves adolescent depression and relieves patients' negative emotions.