Table 1. Characteristics of the included studies of art therapy.

Study author & year	Funding source	Aim	Study type	Number/ (treated/control)	Study population
Henderson et al. (2007)[70]	Not provided	To examine the healing aspects of creating mandalas on mental health (anxiety and PTSD symptoms).	RCT	36 (19/17)	Sex: male and female Age:18–23 Population: undergraduate students (US) with PTSD symptoms Exclusion: simultaneous psychotherapy or phychotropic medication
Sandmire et al. (2012)[71]	Not provided	To assess if art making leads to (significant) anxiety reduction, compared to a control group.	RCT	57 (29/28)	Sex: male and female Age: 18.8 (mean) Population: undergraduate first year students of a liberal arts college (US), a week prior to final exams Exclusion: anxiety disorder, use of medication known to influence the central nervous system (e.g. for depression or ADHD)
Yu et al. (2016) [72]	Not provided	To examine the feasibility of using HTP drawing therapy as an intervention to reduce prisoners' prelease anxiety.	RCT	69 (33/36)	Sex: male Age: 18–60 Population: prisoners (China), to be released within the next 2 to 3 Months Diagnosis: none