Systematic Literature Review of Research on the Effectiveness of Art Therapy for Chinese Patients with Depressive Disorder

This study aimed to systematically review literature on the effects of art therapy in Chinese patients with depression. The review was conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses. We used four Chinese databases (CNKI, CBM, WF, and VIP) to identify studies and dissertations published in China between January 2008 and December 2023, retrieving 368 studies. We applied the inclusion/exclusion criteria based on the Participant, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Time, and Study Design criteria and assessed the risk of bias; 34 studies were included. Studies began in 2008 and their number increased in 2018. They mostly comprised research articles. Intervention targets were most often adolescents (≤19 years old) diagnosed with depressive disorder. Art therapy interventions were conducted and comprised 6–10 group therapy sessions that lasted 60–90 min each. Of the 12 techniques used, painting was the most common. Second, art therapy effectively improved affective, social, cognitive, self, and physical aspects. Given the slow development of art therapy in research and clinical practice, we believe our study makes valuable contributions to its advancement in China.