Hamre, Harald J.Witt, Claudia M.Glockmann, AnjaZiegler, RenatusWillich, Stefan N.Kiene, Helmut2024-05-232024-05-232007Hamre, H. J., Witt, C. M., Glockmann, A., Ziegler, R., Willich, S. N., & Kiene, H. (2007). Anthroposophic Art Therapy in Chronic Disease: A Four-Year Prospective Cohort Study. EXPLORE, 3(4), 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2007.04.0081878-7541https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2007.04.008https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14430/609<p><strong>Background</strong> Anthroposophic art therapy (painting, clay modeling, music, and speech exercises) is used in 28 countries but has not yet been studied in primary care. <strong>Objective</strong> To study clinical outcomes in patients treated with anthroposophic art therapy for chronic diseases. <strong>Design</strong> Prospective cohort study. <strong>Setting</strong> Fifty-four medical practices in Germany.</p> <p><strong>Participants and Interventions</strong> One hundred sixty-one consecutive outpatients (primary care: n = 150), aged 5-71 years, were treated by 52 different art therapists. <strong>Main outcome measures</strong> Disease and symptom scores (physician and patient assessment, respectively, 0-10) and quality of life (adults: SF-36 Health Survey, children: KINDL Questionnaire for Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents). Outcomes were measured after 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months; SF-36 and symptom scores were also measured after 48 months.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong> Most common indications were mental disorders (60.9% of patients, primarily depression, fatigue, and anxiety) and neurological diseases (6.8%). The median number of therapy sessions was 15; median therapy duration was 161 days. All outcomes except KINDL improved significantly between baseline and all subsequent follow-ups. Improvements from baseline to 12 months were: disease score from (mean ± standard deviation) 6.69 ± 1.72 to 2.46 ± 1.90 (P &lt; .001), symptom score from 5.99 ± 1.69 to 3.40 ± 2.08 (P &lt; .001), SF-36 physical component summary measure from 44.12 ± 10.03 to 48.68 ± 9.47 (P &lt; .001), and SF-36 mental component summary measure from 35.07 ± 12.23 to 42.13 ± 11.51 (P &lt; .001). All these improvements were maintained until last follow-up.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion</strong> Patients receiving anthroposophic art therapy had long-term reduction of chronic disease symptoms and improvement of quality of life.</p> <p><strong>Citation</strong>: Hamre, H. J., Witt, C. M., Glockmann, A., Ziegler, R., Willich, S. N., &amp; Kiene, H. (2007). Anthroposophic Art Therapy in Chronic Disease: A Four-Year Prospective Cohort Study. <em>EXPLORE</em>, <em>3</em>(4), 365–371. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2007.04.008" target="_blank">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2007.04.008</a></p> <p>Subscription-only access to full text</p>fatigueprospective studysymptomsmood disordersArt therapyQOL quality of life/library/2019/1/7/anthroposophic-art-therapy-in-chronic-disease