Breast Cancer
Conditions
Keywords
art therapy, breast cancer, women, young women, older women, quality of life, meaning making, support group, art making, art symbols
Brief summary
As studies continue to debate the effects of quality of life on survival, increased attention is being focused on investigating complementary alternative therapies to boost overall total health in cancer patients . Art therapy is an interesting growing field, which has shown promise to positively influence quality of life in the pediatric and adult oncology population alike. As there is a paucity of well controlled complete studies in this field, the investigators propose to study the impact of art therapy sessions in women with breast cancer with quantitative and qualitative analysis of emotional health and physical symptoms. The results of the investigators study will have widespread applicability to oncology programs that wish to offer/implement such sessions to their palliative and non-palliative outpatients in an effort to address the important concept of whole person care.
Interventions
OTHERart therapy
Art therapy sessions, 2 hours in duration, 1 session/week, 8 continuous weeks of sessions. Each group will be limited to eight women as space is limited.
Sponsors
The Cedars Cancer Institute
Dr. Sarkis Meterissian
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
1. Any woman 18-years or older 2. Stage I to III breast cancer (first time diagnosis) 3. Minimum of 6 weeks Post Operative status
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Quality of Life (emotional distress, physical symptoms,self-efficacy and well-being) | 8 weeks | To investigate whether the implementation of an 8 week art therapy course in post-operative outpatient breast cancer patients can alleviate/improve 1. Emotional distress as assessed by the Hospital Depression and Anxiety Scale (HADS) (please see below for details) 2. Physical symptoms as assessed by the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) 3. Meaning making as assessed by The Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-Being Scale (FACIT-Sp-12). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to find and create meaning after the psychosocial impact of a breast cancer diagnosis | 8 weeks | To investigate qualitatively how group art therapy can address the psychosocial impacts of breast cancer, including the challenges of finding and creating meaning following a recent diagnosis of breast cancer. |
Countries
Canada
Outcome results
None listed