Reducing Negative Mood Through Drawing: Comparing Venting, Positive Expression, and Tracing

The effects of mandala coloring on fatigue, psychological well-being, and coping with stress in patients receiving hemodialysis treatment

BACKGROUND

Hemodialysis is an important health problem that negatively affects psychosocial status and support systems. Through practices such as mandala coloring, individuals transfer the unknowns they experience to the outside and make them visible. This study was conducted to examine the effects of mandala coloring on fatigue, psychological well-being, and factors associate with coping with stress in patients receiving hemodialysis treatment.

METHODS

The design was a prospective, parallel-group controlled trial. The study was conducted in the dialysis unit of a university hospital in eastern Turkey between April 4 and October 31, 2022, with a total of 60 patients, 30 in the intervention group, and 30 in the control group. The patients in the intervention group colored mandala once a week for 2 h, for a total of 8 weeks. The data were collected face-to-face using a patient information form, a Fatigue Severity Scale, a Psychological Well-Being Scale, and a Ways of Coping Questionnaire.

RESULTS

There were improvements in fatigue severity and psychological well-being over the 8-week study period in both the intervention and control groups. Scores were similar at baseline in the control and intervention groups, but better in the intervention groups compared to controls at 4 and 8 weeks for both metrics (p < 0001). Five factors from the Ways of Coping Questionnaire (self-confident approach, optimistic approach, seeking social support, helpless approach, and submissive approach) each improved during the 8-week period in the intervention group (p < 0.001). Three of these five factors improved in the control group as well. Scores for each of the five coping factors were better in the intervention group compared to controls at 4 and 8 weeks (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Mandala coloring improved fatigue and psychological well-being and was associated with improved patient coping strategies.

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy approach to the emotional regulation effect of drawing: Venting versus distraction

BACKGROUND

Drawing can regulate emotions through venting or distraction. Distraction is more helpful for short-term emotion recovery; however, the sustainability of this difference is yet to be clarified. This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to explore potential differences between venting and distraction.

METHODS

A total of 44 college students participated in the experiment. After inducing fear by video, they were divided into two groups: The venting group drew their emotional experience, and the distraction group drew a house. Subsequently, the participants were instructed to relax by a brief video.

RESULTS

Although the distraction group had a higher valence than the venting group at the end of the drawing activity, there was no difference between the two groups after a relaxation period. Additionally, the activation pattern of the prefrontal cortex differed between the two groups. Compared to the distraction group, the venting group had fewer channels with elevated prefrontal activity during drawing, suggesting less cognitive control, and had more channels with reduced prefrontal activity during relaxation, suggesting a higher level of relaxation. Drawing coding and fNIRS data were both associated with variations in valence.

CONCLUSION

The less the cognitive control over emotion and the more free the expression of emotion during drawing, the higher the increase in valence; inversely, the more the cognitive control over emotion and the less free the expression of emotion, the lower the increase in valence.

Meaning and blame: Meaning threats increase victim blaming, but profession and art can diminish it

Previous work suggests that people have a need for meaning, and that when meaning is threatened, efforts are undertaken to restore a sense of meaning. We hypothesized that a meaning threat (i.e., reminders of death) would increase victim blaming of a domestic violence victim since doing so can restore a sense of meaning-that people get what they deserve-but for those with advanced knowledge of victimology, such as trained counsellors, this effect would be diminished since victim blaming runs counter to their meaning framework that bad things can happen to good people. In addition, because art can provide a sense of meaning, we hypothesized that either creating meaningful art or observing art and finding meaning within it would diminish blaming a domestic violence victim since having a sense of meaning should diminish the need to restore meaning via victim blaming. Over five studies with undergraduate and trained counsellors, we found support for the hypotheses, and a meta-analysis on the victim blaming effect suggested a small, though significant, effect size of d = .28. These findings enhance our understanding of various factors that affect victim blaming, and they point towards relatively easy to administer interventions to diminish it.

Ultra-brief breath counting (mindfulness) training promotes recovery from stress-induced alcohol-seeking in student drinkers

The therapeutic effect of mindfulness interventions on problematic drinking is thought to be driven by increased resilience to the impact of stress on negative mood and alcohol-seeking behaviour, but this claim needs empirical support. To address this hypothesis, the current study tested whether brief training of one component of mindfulness - breath counting - would reduce drinkers' sensitivity to the effect of noise stress on subjective mood and alcohol-seeking behaviour. Baseline alcohol-seeking was measured by choice to view alcohol versus food thumbnail pictures in 192 student drinkers. Participants then received a 6-minute audio file which either trained breath counting or recited a popular science extract, in separate groups. All participants were then stressed by a loud industrial noise and alcohol-seeking was measured again simultaneously to quantify the change from baseline. Subjective mood was measured after all three stages (baseline, post intervention, post stress test). The breath counting group were instructed to deploy this technique during the stress test. Results showed that the breath counting versus control intervention improved subjective mood relative to baseline, attenuated the worsening of subjective mood produced by stress induction, and accelerated recovery from a stress induced increase in alcohol-seeking behaviour. Exploratory moderation analysis showed that this accelerated recovery from stress induced alcohol-seeking by breath counting was weaker in more alcohol dependent participants. Mindfulness therapies may improve problematic drinking by increasing resilience to stress induced negative mood and alcohol-seeking, as observed in this study. The weaker therapeutic effect of breath counting in more dependent drinkers may reveal limitations to this intervention strategy.

Creative Arts Interventions for Stress Management and Prevention-A Systematic Review

Stress is one of the world's largest health problems, leading to exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, a weak immune system, or even organ damage. In Germany, stress-induced work absenteeism costs about 20 billion Euros per year. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Central Federal Association of the public Health Insurance Funds in Germany ascribes particular importance to stress prevention and stress management as well as health enhancing measures. Building on current integrative and embodied stress theories, Creative Arts Therapies (CATs) or arts interventions are an innovative way to prevent stress and improve stress management. CATs encompass art, music, dance/movement, and drama therapy as their four major modalities. In order to obtain an overview of CATs and arts interventions' efficacy in the context of stress reduction and management, we conducted a systematic review with a search in the following data bases: Academic Search Complete, ERIC, Medline, Psyndex, PsycINFO and SocINDEX. Studies were included employing the PICOS principle and rated according to their evidence level. We included 37 studies, 73% of which were randomized controlled trials. 81.1% of the included studies reported a significant reduction of stress in the participants due to interventions of one of the four arts modalities.