The Effect of Islamically Integrated Art Therapy on Depression, Anxiety and Stress in Patients with Musculoskeletal Pain

Abstract

The present study examined the effect of islamically integrated art therapy on depression, anxiety and stress in patients with musculoskeletal pain in physiotherapy clinic of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The aim of this study was to investigate whether islamically integrated art therapy reduces depression, anxiety and stress in musculoskeletal pain patients after intervention. This study employed a within-group quasi-experimental design to evaluate the differences between pre and post-intervention scores. Purposive sampling technique was used to select patients with musculoskeletal pain for depression, anxiety, and stress before baseline measurements. Selected participants were then screened for depression, anxiety and stress. The sample was drawn from a private physiotherapy clinic in Rawalpindi. The intervention involved 6 semi-structured sessions of islamically integrated art therapy over a duration of 2 weeks. The sessions involved coloring Islamic mandalas, writing thought records, reflecting on pain (sabr), gratitude (shukr) and meaning via different art based activities. The participants showed significant decrease in depression, and stress in post-intervention scores. However, the participants did not show significant changes in anxiety scores. The findings suggest that while art therapy can significantly reduce depression and stress in pain patients, longer treatment durations may be necessary to address anxiety effectively. As patients were already taking treatment as usual, further research is needed to demonstrate the effect of islamically integrated art therapy on the study variables in musculoskeletal pain patients.