PL.04.01 Is it time for immuno-psychiatry?

S.16.01 Is the vesicular glutamate transporter type 3 (VGLUT3) a novel marker linking mood to sleep? A study in VGLUT3 deficient mice

PL.06.01 Anxious temperament: results from a translational neuroscience approach

S.12.05 Allosteric modulation of NMDA receptors rescues impaired synaptic plasticity in experimental Parkinsonism

S.24.02 Reelin, an extracellular matrix protein linked to early onset psychiatric diseases, drives prefrontal cortex development via the mTOR pathway

S.06.03 Neurobiological risk factors for schizophrenia in adults with 22q11.2DS

Background People in prison often present with histories of trauma that can be difficult to process in the volatile prison environment. This article seeks to advance our understanding of the benefits of art therapy within a multidisciplinary team, and how it can help young men in prison who have experienced trauma. Context A review of the art therapy-informed interventions offered for trauma stabilisation in a service for young adult men in prison with complex needs is presented. Approach This article discusses a trauma-informed service in the prison and the variety of ways in which art therapy can support people in prison with histories of complex trauma. It explores: the use of art therapy in a group focusing on improving the prison environment; the role of art therapy in supporting trauma stabilisation and the development of ‘safe place’ processing; and the use of art therapy tools to explore dissociation with service users prior to engaging in trauma therapy. Conclusions The article highlights the vital role of art therapy as a non-verbal therapy to support young men to heal their past trauma. Reflections are offered on the importance of embedding art therapy within a service’s trauma therapy pathway. Implications for research It is recommended that research into the use of art therapy within prison settings is undertaken which could explore its utility in supporting people to process their trauma. This would provide further evidence for the role that non-verbal therapies may play in healing trauma.

ABSTRACTUK Armed Forces personnel experiencing mental health difficulties are not, at present, offered art therapy as a treatment option. This paper considers the prevalence of mental health problems for personnel currently serving in the Armed Forces compared with the UK general population. The current treatment pathway for UK Armed Forces personnel is explained and compared with a review of literature regarding art therapy for the similar client groups; veterans in the UK and, military personnel in the United States, Russia and Israel. Much of the UK media discussion about military mental health focuses on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The veterans charity Combat Stress (along-side other charities) carries out vital work with PSTD sufferers. However, it is highlighted that PTSD is not the most prevalent mental health presentation for UK Armed Forces personnel. It is hypothesised that art therapy could be a suitable treatment option for UK Armed Forces personnel with mental health issues and it is proposed that formal research should be undertaken, to determine the efficacy of art therapy with this client group at one of the Ministry of Defence Departments of Community Mental Health.Plain-language summaryDefinitions:• UK Armed Forces: Personnel currently serving in the UK military in either; the Army, Royal Navy, Royal Marines or the Royal Air Force.• Veteran: A person who has left the Armed Forces having previously served for at least one full day.• Combat Stress: A UK based charity providing mental health support for veterans.UK Armed Forces personnel experiencing mental health difficulties are not, at present, offered art therapy as a treatment option at any of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Departments of Community Mental Health (DCMH). This paper provides a brief overview of art therapy before considering the prevalence of mental health problems for personnel currently serving in the UK Armed Forces compared with the UK general population. The current treatment pathway for serving personnel is explained and compared to a review of literature regarding art therapy for veterans in the UK predominantly looking at the art therapy workshops conducted by the charity Combat Stress with lead art therapist Janice Lobban. The author also considered papers submitted concerning art therapy for military personnel in the United States, Russia and Israel. In addition she looked at the report from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts in Health and Wellbeing. In conclusion, it is hypothesised that art therapy could be a suitable treatment option for the UK Armed Forces. The author proposes that formal research could be undertaken, to determine the efficacy of art therapy with an Armed Forces client group at one of the Ministry of Defence Departments of Community Mental Health.

This systematic review examined the effectiveness of creative psychological interventions (CPIs) for adult cancer patients. In particular, the findings of randomised controlled trials of art, drama, dance/movement and music therapies on psychological outcomes were examined. The review yielded 10 original studies analysing data from a total of 488 patients. Data extraction and quality assessment were conducted by two independent reviewers. Four of the papers focused on the use of art therapy, three studies used music therapy, one paper utilised dance therapy, one study used dance/movement therapy and the remaining paper used creative arts therapies, which was a combination of different art-based therapy approaches. Eight papers focused solely on breast cancer patients, and the remaining studies included mixed cancer sites/stages. The studies reported improvements in anxiety and depression, quality of life, coping, stress, anger and mood. However, few physical benefits of CPIs were reported; there was no significant impact of a CPI on physical aspects of quality of life, vigour-activity or fatigue-inertia or physical functioning. One study was assessed as high quality, seven studies were assessed as satisfactory and two studies were assessed to be of poorer quality. There is initial evidence that CPIs benefit adult cancer patients with respect to anxiety and depression, quality of life, coping, stress, anger and mood; there was no evidence to suggest that any one type of CPI was especially beneficial. However, more and better quality research needs to be conducted, particularly in the areas of drama and dance/movement therapies.

This study is a Bibliometrix analysis conducted in the field of health between 2014 and 2025 using the keywords “hemodialysis,” “art therapy,” and “chronic kidney failure.” A search was conducted in the Scopus database to access relevant articles. The keywords “hemodialysis,” “art therapy,” and “chronic kidney failure” were used in the search. As a result, a total of 29,242 studies were identified, and 402 studies meeting the criteria were included for analysis. The research was analyzed and visualized using Biblioshiny, the web interface provider of the R-based Bibliometrix analysis program. The number of studies on the use of art therapy in hemodialysis patients peaked in 2024. The United States produced the highest number of publications. In conceptual networks, the theme “Chronic Kidney Failure” stood out. In the document co-citation network, the paper published by Cupisti was prominent, Fouque was the most productive author, and the journal with the most publications was the Journal of Renal Nutrition. Mayo Clinic was the university with the highest number of publications. The review of studies conducted in the last 11 years on hemodialysis and art therapy showed that effective interventions for improving and enhancing health have been tested. Additionally, while art therapy emerges as a supportive treatment method for alleviating symptoms in chronic kidney failure, the academic output in this field is still insufficient. In conclusion, this bibliometric analysis provides valuable information for researchers in terms of strategic planning, developing collaborations, and identifying gaps in the literature.

A survey of art therapists with doctoral degrees was conducted to obtain information on the types of doctorates received by art therapists and the research topics and methodologies of the dissertations. The 78 responses received showed that there has been a rapid increase in the number of art therapists with doctoral degrees in the last several years. The dissertation topics were diverse; the predominant topics were studies of art therapy assessment tools, identification of abuse, and the use of art therapy in the treatment of serious illness/grief. Art therapists equally utilized quantitative and qualitative research methods.A mentor and resource pool, based on the information gathered in this survey, is recommended to assist art therapists conducting research.

The purpose of this qualitative research was to (a) investigate how counseling intervention through art therapy influenced the psycho-emotional, social, physical, and spiritual self-development of school children who have conflicts and problems with their families and other institutions; and (b) to consider the practical implications of the findings for the future use of art therapy in school settings. A phenomenological research design was implemented, because the researcher was concerned with collecting qualitative data to describe the lived experiences of the people who participated in the research. Forty (40) participants were sampled from Grade IV pupils of Pedro H. Escueta Memorial School for the Academic Year 2015-2016 based on their attendance during the researcher’s visits and their willingness to participate in the study. An Art therapy counseling intervention was implemented using the House- Tree- Person HTP) Test and the Draw- a- Person (DAP) Test. Before and after this intervention, a pre-evaluation and a post-evalution of the psychological needs of the pupils were conducted using the Psychological Needs Assessment Tool. After a series of six (6) sessions of art therapy counseling interventions, there were improvements in the different dimensions of the pupils’ psycho-emotional, social and physical, spiritual and self –development needs. The findings were consistent with previous research concluding that art therapy counseling can be used in a school for pupils with special needs. The main recommendation based on this conclusion is that the teachers of Grade IV pupils at Pedro H. Escueta Memorial School along with other school officials are encouraged to implement art therapy as a counseling intervention. More research needs to be conducted at other schools, at other times, to generalize the results of this study.

There are over thirty million refugees globally with severe experiences of trauma. Art therapy intervention allows for nonverbal expression and could alleviate mental health symptomatology among refugees. The present review’s aim was to integrate and summarize the previous research which examined the effects of visual arts on alleviating psychological conditions of refugees. However, due to the paucity of studies which solely used visual arts, we included studies that used visual arts alongside other modalities as part of an expressive arts therapy intervention. The present review synthesizes studies that examined the effect of art therapy on mental health issues of refugees from January 2000 to March 2021. Seven studies (child and adolescent sample, N = 5 and adult sample, N = 2) with a total of 298 refugee participants (n = 298) met our inclusion criteria. The participants were from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Southeast Asia, and Europe. We found three commonly reported mental health disorders, namely Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and Major Depression Disorder. The research highlights how art therapy interventions could be a great starting point to alleviate symptomatology among refugees. Four additional benefits of art therapy which were commonly reported across the seven studies emerged from this review: working with traumatic experience/loss, rebuilding social connection and trust, nonverbal communication and self-expression of loss and trauma, and retelling stories. Art therapy interventions could be used as a starting point in the healing process of traumatized refugees to encourage verbal articulation of their feelings and reduce mental health symptoms. Despite these promising findings, due to a dearth of robust methodologies, further research is required to assess the long-term effectiveness of art therapy.

The article presents the results of an empirical study, the purpose of which is to study the attitude of university students to the use of art therapy. It was assumed that students have insufficient knowledge about art therapy, and the study of art therapy courses by future psychologists and teachers is important for the development of their professional competencies. A questionnaire was developed that included eight questions characterizing students’ knowledge of art therapy (general understanding and familiarity with it, its definition, applicability and effectiveness, types, benefits for professional and psychological tasks). A survey of 42 students of the Faculty of Psychology and Social Pedagogy of the Taganrog Institute named after A.P. Chekhov (branch) of the Russian State Economic University (RINH) was conducted, as well as 39 students of technical areas of the Southern Federal University in Taganrog. The main result of the study was that students’ knowledge of art therapy was quite poor (especially students of technical specialties). At the same time, a significant part of students are interested in art therapy and consider it useful for professional development and psychological health. The results obtained can be used in the development of university academic disciplines in art therapy. A conclusion is made about the desirability of including some art therapy methods in the training program (primarily psychological and pedagogical areas), which will improve the quality of training of future specialists.

“Art Therapy Assessment of Coping Styles in Severe Asthmatics” presents a definition of asthma as a psychophysiologic disorder, and provides an introduction to an art therapy technique designed to assess the perceptions asthmatic children have of their illness, and their coping styles.Four cases are briefly presented demonstrating how this procedure can enhance treatment and highlight psychological factors pertinent to this population.A comparison of the coping styles and grieving stages is made between terminally ill and chronically ill patients. Other issues specific to asthmatic children are identified in order to compare patients' coping styles.In conclusion, the use of art therapy is presented as a means of identifying ability to cope with illness in a pediatric asthmatic population. Art therapy can have certain advantages over more traditional therapeutic modalities in this situation.

This study evaluates the efficacy of Behavior Therapy (BT) and Art Therapy (AT) in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. ADHD impairs daily functioning and development, with diagnoses increasing globally post-pandemic. The global prevalence is 5.29%, while Indian studies report 1.6% to 14%. Although pharmacological treatment is common, alternative therapies like BT and AT are gaining attention. Fifty participants aged 4 to 18 years were assigned to two groups. Group A received pharmacological management and BT; Group B received pharmacological management, BT, and AT. Both groups underwent 18–20 sessions over three months. A pre-post experimental design was conducted at Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur. Tools used were the ADHD Symptom Checklist-4 and Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory™ Version 4.0. Results showed significant improvements in Group B (p < 0.001). The findings support the combined use of Art Therapy with Behavior Therapy and Medication.