{"title":"Coloring the journey: The transformative impact of art therapy on cancer patients’ well-being","authors":"Babak Arjmand , Pouya Mehran , Alieh Mirzaei , Keinaz Najafi , Luna Najafi , Suzanne Hojjat-Assari","doi":"10.1016/j.joim.2025.10.007","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality globally, and a range of physical, psychological and emotional symptoms can accompany it. Over the past years, due to its global prevalence and associated health challenges, novel therapeutic approaches have been introduced to the healthcare system. In this regard, supportive and palliative care has been proposed as an effective field that has significantly progressed in cancer management and symptom reduction. Particularly, art therapy, as a supportive and palliative care approach, plays an important role in controlling and reducing symptoms in cancer management. It has a significant impact in enhancing the quality of life for cancer patients and improving social functioning. It fosters emotional expression and coping mechanisms, alleviating distress associated with the disease. Moreover, art therapy has a deep influence on various aspects of the patients’ life, and greatly enhances their quality of life, motivating them to improve their social functioning. The extended impact of art therapy affects family members, close relatives, and caregivers who might also use it as a means to work through positive effects at numerous stages of the cancer journey. In this regard, further research is warranted to optimize its integration into standard cancer care practices.</div><div><br>Please cite this article as: Arjmand B, Mehran P, Mirzaei A, Najafi K, Najafi L, Hojjat-Assari S. Coloring the journey: The transformative impact of art therapy on cancer patients’ well-being. <em>J Integr Med</em>. 2026; 24(1):24–32.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48599,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Integrative Medicine-Jim","volume":"24 1","pages":"Pages 24-32"},"PeriodicalIF":5.2000,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Integrative Medicine-Jim","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095496425001682","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/10/31 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INTEGRATIVE & COMPLEMENTARY MEDICINE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality globally, and a range of physical, psychological and emotional symptoms can accompany it. Over the past years, due to its global prevalence and associated health challenges, novel therapeutic approaches have been introduced to the healthcare system. In this regard, supportive and palliative care has been proposed as an effective field that has significantly progressed in cancer management and symptom reduction. Particularly, art therapy, as a supportive and palliative care approach, plays an important role in controlling and reducing symptoms in cancer management. It has a significant impact in enhancing the quality of life for cancer patients and improving social functioning. It fosters emotional expression and coping mechanisms, alleviating distress associated with the disease. Moreover, art therapy has a deep influence on various aspects of the patients’ life, and greatly enhances their quality of life, motivating them to improve their social functioning. The extended impact of art therapy affects family members, close relatives, and caregivers who might also use it as a means to work through positive effects at numerous stages of the cancer journey. In this regard, further research is warranted to optimize its integration into standard cancer care practices.
Please cite this article as: Arjmand B, Mehran P, Mirzaei A, Najafi K, Najafi L, Hojjat-Assari S. Coloring the journey: The transformative impact of art therapy on cancer patients’ well-being. J Integr Med. 2026; 24(1):24–32.
期刊介绍:
The predecessor of JIM is the Journal of Chinese Integrative Medicine (Zhong Xi Yi Jie He Xue Bao). With this new, English-language publication, we are committed to make JIM an international platform for publishing high-quality papers on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and an open forum in which the different professions and international scholarly communities can exchange views, share research and their clinical experience, discuss CAM education, and confer about issues and problems in our various disciplines and in CAM as a whole in order to promote integrative medicine.
JIM is indexed/abstracted in: MEDLINE/PubMed, ScienceDirect, Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Embase, Chemical Abstracts (CA), CAB Abstracts, EBSCO, WPRIM, JST China, Chinese Science Citation Database (CSCD), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI).
JIM Editorial Office uses ThomsonReuters ScholarOne Manuscripts as submitting and review system (submission link: http://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/jcim-en).
JIM is published bimonthly. Manuscripts submitted to JIM should be written in English. Article types include but are not limited to randomized controlled and pragmatic trials, translational and patient-centered effectiveness outcome studies, case series and reports, clinical trial protocols, preclinical and basic science studies, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, papers on methodology and CAM history or education, conference proceedings, editorials, commentaries, short communications, book reviews, and letters to the editor.
Our purpose is to publish a prestigious international journal for studies in integrative medicine. To achieve this aim, we seek to publish high-quality papers on any aspects of integrative medicine, such as acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda medicine, herbal medicine, homeopathy, nutrition, chiropractic, mind-body medicine, taichi, qigong, meditation, and any other modalities of CAM; our commitment to international scope ensures that research and progress from all regions of the world are widely covered. These ensure that articles published in JIM have the maximum exposure to the international scholarly community.
JIM can help its authors let their papers reach the widest possible range of readers, and let all those who share an interest in their research field be concerned with their study.