TABLE 1.

Studies of art therapy in mental diseases.

Type of diseases/author and year	Country	Number (painting)	Treatment	Subjects	Main results
Depression and anxiety
Bar-Sela et al., 2007	Israel	19/41	once-weekly, 4w/2w	Cancer patients with depression and anxiety	In the intervention group, the median Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale score for depression was 9 at the beginning and 7 after the fourth appointment.
Gussak, 2007	Unite States American	48	4-week period, two group sessions per week	Depression	The results reflected a significant decrease in depressive symptoms in those inmates who participated in the program.
Geue et al., 2013	Germany	54	22 sessions	Cancer patients with psychological distress	Anxiety scores decreased in a pre–post comparison.
Crone et al., 2013	United Kingdom	202	10-week intervention	Patients with anxiety, depression, or stress	There was a significant improvement in well-being.
Montag et al., 2014	Germany	58	12 twice-weekly sessions	Acute psychotic episodes with depression	Patients in the ART group showed significant improvement in levels of emotional awareness.
Armstrong and Howatson, 2015	United Kingdom	6 mothers/8 infants	12 consecutive weeks	Postpartum depression	The responses of the questionnaires were more positive after the intervention, and 8 of the 10 mothers showed an improvement in postpartum depression and in the relationship with their children.
Lefèvre et al., 2016	France	28	63 art therapy sessions, 1 h/session	Cancer patients with depression and anxiety	There was a significant reduction in all of the symptoms: pain, anxiety, evil, fatigue, sadness, and depression.
Ciasca et al., 2018	Brazil	31/25	20 weekly art therapy sessions (90 min/session)	Depression	Art therapy as an adjunctive treatment for MDD in the elderly can improve depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Forouzandeh et al., 2020	Iran	55	NA	Anxiety	Nurses should collaborate with medical teams to routinely use non-pharmacological methods such as the painting and the interactive games to alleviate preoperative anxiety in children.
Cognitive impairment, and dementia
Rusted et al., 2016	United Kingdom	45	1 h each week for 40 successive weeks	Dementia	Art therapy is beneficial and appropriate interventions for older people with dementia.
Pike, 2013	Unite States American	91	10-week art therapy	Cognitive impairment	Art therapy treatment was associated with significantly improved cognitive performance.
Heymann et al., 2018	Germany	32	analysis of tree drawings on a digitizing tablet	Mild cognitive impairment (MCI)	MCI group shows a higher recognition rate.
Yu et al., 2021	Singapore	22	weekly 45-min sessions were carried out across 3 months.	MCI	Significant gains in immediate memory and working memory span were observed.
Alzheimer’s disease
Witkoski and Chaves, 2007	Brazil	11	31 months	Alzheimer’s disease	The selection of drawing or modeling showed significant association with severity of cognitive deficit.
Mimica and Kaliniæ, 2011	Croatia	1 case report	not available	Alzheimer’s disease	The art therapy was shown to be an excellent add-on non-pharmacological intervention, beneficial for reducing stress-related behaviors.
Hattori et al., 2011	Japan	39	once weekly for 12 weeks	Alzheimer’s disease	Significant improvement in the quality of life was observed in the art therapy
Autism
Low et al., 2009	New Zealand	27	four 0.5 to 1 h sessions that were approximately 1 week apart	Autism	There is an important relationship between generativity and imagination.
Ten and Muller, 2018	Canada	22	1.5-h session	Autism	There are changes in the type of cognitive processes involved in imagination and children with autism employ a unique cognitive strategy in imaginative drawing.
Jalambadani, 2020	Iran	48	12 sessions	Autism	Autistic children showed more adaptive behaviors and emotions.
Schizophrenia
Richardson et al., 2009	United Kingdom	43	12 weekly sessions of one and a half hours	Schizophrenia	Art therapy produced a statistically significant positive effect on negative symptoms.
Teglbjaerg, 2011	Denmark	5	2 h a week	Schizophrenia	The positive effect of art therapy is mainly due to a strengthening of the Schizophrenia’ minimal sense of self.
Mannheim et al., 2013	Serbian	2	once a week, two months	Schizophrenia	The patient’s drawings show clinical improvement from the reduction of depressive themes and an increase in the frequency of human figure drawings and self-confidence.
Tong et al., 2020	China	104	90 min for a total of 30 times in 15 weeks	Schizophrenia	Group art therapy can improve self-efficacy and social function, reducing social and life function problems, and promote the recovery of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia.