An Experimental Comparative Study on the Effect Times of Three Art Based Psychotherapies in a Medical Setting

Introduction: Recently, a short-term hospitalization policy has been implemented to reduce the psychosocial consequences of illness. Nonetheless, psychosocial problems in patients persist. Therefore, in addition to the necessity of providing psychological services, the necessity of brief interventions is also important. So, the aim of the present study was to compare the effect times of the three psychotherapies. Method: The present research was undertaken in an ex post facto design. After designing the art therapy, psychodrama and psycho-art-drama comparable protocols for the present study, 15 hospitalized children with cancer admitted to Children Medical Center (CMC) from November 2018 to February 2019 were selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Each of the protocols were applied for five participants. The measures of the present study included the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), the Child Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (CPASS), and the checklist of Bio-Psycho-Social Expressions of Incompatibility in Hospital (BPSEIH). The data analysis was performed by ANOVA test for comparing the effect times. Results: The findings revealed that psychodrama is the fastest psychotherapy with a lower effect time. Conclusion: It can be stated that considering the effect time is necessary to select a psychotherapy as well as the effect size. Keywords: