Art Therapy for Caregivers of Young Patients Undergoing Bone Marrow Transplant for Cancer

City of Hope

Status: Completed

Conditions: Psychosocial Effects of Cancer and Its Treatment; Health Status Unknown

Treatments: Other: questionnaire administration; Other: psychosocial support for caregiver; Procedure: quality-of-life assessment; Procedure: stress management therapy

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00922285

CHNMC-08028

P30CA033572 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

08028

CDR0000642781 (Registry Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

RATIONALE: Art therapy may help relieve emotional distress in caregivers of young patients undergoing bone marrow transplant for cancer.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying art therapy for caregivers of young patients undergoing bone marrow transplant for cancer.

Full description

OBJECTIVES:

• Test the effects of an art therapy intervention on emotional distress in caregivers of pediatric patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation for cancer.
• Describe pro-social interactions of caregivers of pediatric patients undergoing bone marrow transplantation for cancer.
• Describe the illness experience of caregivers and how it is impacted by the art therapy intervention.
• Describe the caregivers' current health-related quality of life and life meaning prior to pediatric patients initiation of bone marrow transplantation for cancer.
• Determine the effect size for calculating the sample needed for a randomized clinical trial.

OUTLINE: Caregivers undergo art therapy over 60 minutes once a week for 6 weeks. Each session comprises developing trust through the expression of support, affirmation, and collaboration; creating intimacy through attunement; exploring affective states; integrative processing through the creation of an autobiographical narrative; and identifying opportunities for continued exploration and resources that support the client, should that exploration become necessary.

Caregivers also complete a Meaning of Life Questionnaire and a Family Quality of Life Scale at baseline and at the end of week 6.

Enrollment: 11 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Family caregiver identified by the patient's physician as most involved in the patient care including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Mother
  • Father
  • Grandmother
  • Grandfather
  • Aunt
  • Uncle
  • Older sibling

• One caregiver per pediatric patient

• No caregivers who are part of an institutional system and are temporarily fulfilling the custodial role of the patient (i.e., foster parents)

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Able to speak and read English and/or Spanish
• No uncontrolled mental health and/or physical condition

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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11 participants in 1 patient group

Art Therapy

Experimental group

Treatment:

Procedure: stress management therapy

Procedure: quality-of-life assessment

Other: questionnaire administration

Other: psychosocial support for caregiver