SynthesisFrontiers in human neuroscience2026
Art therapy and emotional pain: a scoping review of physiological and biological measures.
Synthesis in Frontiers in human neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Evaluating the Impact of Integrative Art Therapies on Psychological Well-Being in Pediatric Oncology: A Single-Group Pre-Post Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: The increasing prevalence of mental health disorders and emotional pain poses a critical challenge to social well-being and healthcare equity. Visual art therapy is well established as a clinical and nonclinical intervention for emotional pain that promotes self-regulation and psychological insight. However, there is a lack of research that clearly maps the previous studies that use both subjective and objective measures to examine the impact of art therapy on emotional pain. Methods: This scoping review focuses on studies that use brain or physiological measurement in investigating the effect of art therapy on emotional pain in healthy adults. A systematic search of academic databases and scholarly information systems MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Engineering Village, Web of Science, Academic Search Ultimate, and Epistemonikos was conducted in May 2025. It identified 4,734 relevant records, of which 12 full texts were screened, and 6 studies met the inclusion criteria. Results: Evidence indicates that visual art therapy can improve mood and reduce stress, anxiety, fear, and sadness, also modulating activity across multiple brain regions. Overall, fNIRS studies reported increased activation in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex after art therapy, and studies on HR, skin conductance, salivary cortisol, sAA, IL-6, CRP, and RSA illustrated its positive effects in reducing stress, anxiety, and sad mood. Discussion: However, existing research has primarily addressed emotional pain, with no studies assessing its impact on physical pain in healthy populations using objective physiological or biological measures, showing that there is a gap for assessing physical pain improvement by art therapy. These findings highlight both the therapeutic potential of visual art interventions and the need for further research to explore their effects on physical pain. Systematic review registration: This review was registered on the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/935kw, date created and registered: 24. 07. 2025).
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