Effectiveness of Art Therapy Interventions for Adolescent Pain Management in the Pediatric Emergency Department

Pain is one of the most common reasons for patients to visit the emergency department (ED), and can be treated using both complementary and pharmacological strategies. However, children are often undertreated for pain which results in not only short term problems, but long term consequences such as trauma and stress-induced disorders; health care avoidance as adults; increased pain sensitivity; and decreased response to future analgesia. There have been variable efforts made to improve the ED management of pain in children, but adolescents are frequently overlooked. A review of the literature revealed that art therapy for pain management in adolescents is understudied. The majority of studies describe the effects of art therapy on the emotional well-being in surgical and oncology populations in adults and children. The studies that did evaluate the effectiveness of art therapy for pain management in children focused primarily on surgical and medical oncology populations with children aged 2-14 years. Of these studies, none evaluated adolescents in the ED, which is a high volume and high stress environment that confers a distinct experience for patients compared to other medical settings. Evaluation of art therapy interventions using quantitative self-report measures with strong validity in children and further delineation of the patient experience related to art therapy is necessary. Advanced evaluation of aforementioned interventions would expand the evidence base needed to describe effectiveness of these interventions and support greater implementation and dissemination. These are the gaps in knowledge that the investigators aim to fill with the proposed study.