Nainis, Nancy, et al. Relieving the Symptoms in Cancer: Innovative Use of Art Therapy.

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management 31.2 (2006): 162-169. Web. 13. Mar. 2016.

This article explained the experiment of an hour long art therapy session on pain and
other symptoms measured through the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) and the
Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Index (STAI-S) in relation to patients with cancer. According to
the ESAS, there was a reduction for 8 out of 9 of the symptoms measured. The STAI-S also
showed statistically significant differences for many of the categories measured. This study
showed the short term effects of one art therapy session, but even after just one session their
proved to be positive benefits. The article noted that art therapy is easy to implement in hospitals,
and patients personal feedback showed that by engaging in art provided distraction from their
current state, by focusing attention on something positive instead. This article addresses one of
the categories of people (cancer patients) that I wanted to look at that art could benefit. This
article also addressed how art therapy is a complementary therapy to the traditional medical
approach, but more research is needed to measure how beneficial it can be. This study
successfully attempted that.