Effectiveness of art therapy on pain and anxiety in children undergoing invasive medical procedures

The effectiveness of art therapy in reducing pain and anxiety in children aged 3-12 undergoing invasive medical procedures is of interest. Hence, a one-group pretest-posttest design involved 41 participants receiving a 20-25 minute art therapy session. Results showed significant reductions in pain (mean scores from 8.90 to 5.22) and anxiety (mean scores from 9.24 to 5.27) post-intervention. Severe pain levels decreased from 97.6% to 12.2%, while severe anxiety dropped from 90.2% to 26.8%. Thus, we show art therapy as a beneficial non-pharmacological intervention in pediatric care.