Art Therapy Intervention for Breast Cancer Patients

A Mixed Methods Approach to Evaluating How Art Therapy Can Benefit Women Recently Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Breast Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: art therapy

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 64
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Quebec
    • Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3A 1A1
      • Cedars Breast Centre\ Royal Victoria Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Any woman 18-years or older
2. Stage I to III breast cancer (first time diagnosis)
3. Minimum of 6 weeks Post Operative status

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Art Therapy intervention group; For participants who will be part of the art therapy intervention, the art therapy group will be a closed group for eight women with breast cancer who are in treatment and recently have had surgery. The group will meet once a week for two hours over a period of 8 weeks, and will focus on exploring the expressive capabilities of art making in a supportive group. This group will be held in the conference room at the Cedars Breast Clinic. Each week will revolve around a theme that pertains to the experience of women living with breast cancer, and will be guided by the women's needs in the group. A broad range of art materials will be made available and various art techniques explored. No art experience is necessary. The intervention group will also need to fill out simple questionnaires before the art therapy groups starts and after the group finishes	Other: art therapy; Art therapy sessions, 2 hours in duration, 1 session/week, 8 continuous weeks of sessions. Each group will be limited to eight women as space is limited.
No Intervention: Control Group; The group not assigned to the intervention group will be asked to fill out questionnaires at two separate times (before and after the intervention group is run). The Control group will be offered the opportunity to join an open art therapy group upon completing the questionnaires.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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; Emotional distress as assessed by the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) (please see below for details); Physical symptoms as assessed by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS); 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).	8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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.	8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Dr. Sarkis Meterissian
• Collaborators: The Cedars Cancer Institute
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Katherine L Laux, MA Art Therapy, Cedars CanSupport; Principal Investigator: Virginia Lee, PhD, McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre; Principal Investigator: Sharon Wexler, PhD, Cedars CanSupport; Principal Investigator: Monisha Sudarshan, MD, McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre; Study Director: Sarkis Meterissian, PhD, MUHC Cedars Breast Centre

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Art Therapy, a kind of complementary therapy for cancer patients

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: August 1, 2010
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): October 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 9, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 13, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): October 14, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): October 25, 2013
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 24, 2013
• Last Verified: October 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: breast cancer; quality of life; women; support group; art therapy; older women; young women; meaning making; art making; art symbols
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Skin Diseases; Neoplasms; Neoplasms by Site; Breast Diseases; Breast Neoplasms
• Other Study ID Numbers: 10-049-PSY