Art Therapy as Treatment for Fear of Childbirth

February 13, 2012 updated by: Helen Wahlbeck, Helsingborgs Hospital

Art Therapy as Treatment for Fear of Childbirth:a Randomized Controlled Study

Earlier research has shown that pregnant women with a pronounced fear of childbirth have a significantly increased risk for birth complications and subsequent psychological trauma. In Sweden and also internationally, women in fear of childbirth are treated in many differing ways. Evidence for best care for these women is lacking. The Art Therapy method is a creative, psycho-therapeutic form of treatment which has been used for several decades within psychiatry. It has recently been seen that the Art Therapy method has positive effects during treatment for crisis reactions.

Recruitment has recently been initiated for a randomized controlled study of Art Therapy for the treatment of fear of childbirth.

The hypothesis for the study is as follows:

H1 = treatment with Art Therapy and therapeutic conversations will result in a decrease in fear of childbirth when compared to treatment by therapeutic conversations only.

The instrument which is to be used for measurement of childbirth fear is the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ). This is a well validated instrument which was developed in Sweden. A power calculation has shown a need for 62 x 2 participants; a total of 124 women.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

124

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

  • Sweden
    • Skane
      • Helsingborg, Skane, Sweden, 25187
        • Recruiting
        • Helsingborg Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Helén Wahlbeck, Lic. Midwife

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Pregnant women
  • Pronounced fear of childbirth

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Women with a current psychiatric diagnosis
  • Women who do not understand Swedish
  • Women with a current substance misuse

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Art therapy group
Treatment in this arm consists of five Art Therapy sessions and therapeutic conversations.
Other: Art Therapy and therapeutic conversations
Treatment consists of five sessions of Art Therapy given by an authorised Art Therapist and therapeutic conversations with specialist midwives. Number of conversations is determined by the participant.
Active Comparator: Therapeutic conversation group
Treatment by therapeutic conversations only
Other: Therapeutic conversations
Therapeutic conversations with specialist midwives. Number of conversations is determined by the participant.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Scores for the Wijma Delivery Expectancy Questionnaire (W-DEQ)
Time Frame: Change in W-DEQ scores measured at entry to the study (approximately gestational weeks 20 to 31) and again at gestational week 36.
Change in W-DEQ scores measured at entry to the study (approximately gestational weeks 20 to 31) and again at gestational week 36.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Helsingborgs Hospital

Investigators

  • Study Chair: Linda J Kvist, PhD, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

May 1, 2011

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 19, 2011

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 19, 2011

First Posted (Estimate)

October 24, 2011

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 14, 2012

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 13, 2012

Last Verified

February 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 210/422

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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