The Use of Art Therapy in the Treatment of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

DOI

10.2991/ahsr.k.211130.020How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Art therapy; Eating disorder; Anorexia nervosa; Bulimia nervosa; Binge-eating disorder

Abstract

One of the characteristics of individuals with eating disorders is the inability to express themselves verbally. Hence, art therapy is particularly effective for individuals with this disorder because of its core mechanism which is the ability to bypass verbal communication and elicit psychological and emotional response through the expression of art. Compared to other forms of therapy, there is very little study that focuses on art therapy in the treatment of eating disorders. Existing literature have shown that there are therapeutic qualities in the art therapy process that might be useful in the field of eating disorders. This systematic review discusses the use of art therapy in the treatment of eating disorders with the aim to: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of using art therapy in the treatment of eating disorders; (2) recognize several therapeutic factors that emerge based on the literature of art therapy and eating disorders—expression, catharsis, and projection, and (3) examine the use of art therapy as a tool to identify conflicts in eating disorder patients—control, body image, isolation, self-esteem, and split self-image. The articles are retrieved from APA PsycNet, CORE, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, ScienceDirect, and Wiley Online Library. The selection process is adapted from PRISMA 2009 and findings are analyzed using the systematic review method. Articles reviewed focus on the use of art therapy in the treatment of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder—on individuals ranging from 11-60 years of age in which the majority of them are female. Findings indicate that the use of art therapy in the treatment of eating disorders is indeed effective and several therapeutic factors can be recognized. Certain themes of conflicts can also be identified through the artwork of eating disorder patients.

Copyright

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press International B.V.

Open Access

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zaida M. Prijatna
AU  - Monty P. Satiadarma
AU  - Linda Wati
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/12/01
TI  - The Use of Art Therapy in the Treatment of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review
BT  - Proceedings of the 1st Tarumanagara International Conference on Medicine and Health (TICMIH 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 103
EP  - 110
SN  - 2468-5739
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/ahsr.k.211130.020
DO  - 10.2991/ahsr.k.211130.020
ID  - Prijatna2021
ER  -