Psycho-art-drama: development and testing a new integrated complementary method of psychiatric treatments for hospitalised children with cancer (a case study).

Art therapy as a psychotherapy method using art, and psychodrama as a therapeutic method using role play, have different roots, principles, techniques and different effect mechanisms and advantages. Integrated psychotherapies are aimed to maximise each of the component advantages, as well as minimising disadvantages. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to develop a new integrated psychotherapy method, named psycho-art-drama (PAD) for hospitalised children with cancer and testing its effectiveness. After designing the PAD protocol, five hospitalised children with cancer accompanied with their mothers selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria to participate in this single-subject study. The results showed that PAD was significantly effective in reducing the bio-psycho-social expressions of incompatibility in the hospital (BPSEIH) in all of the five children. Findings of this study give preliminary support using the PAD model in similar conditions.