Art, dogs and music – here’s how they can help patients recover from illness

Recovering from illness doesn’t always involve drugs.

Art, animals and music are behind some of the complementary treatments that can be used alongside traditional medicine to help patients regain their health.

These therapies are generally grouped together as ‘non-pharmacological interventions’. And research shows they can sometimes be very effective.

Here are some examples.

Looking at art from their hospital beds helped cancer patients combat boredom, anxiety and depression, according to a recent study. 73 patients at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York viewed art images on an iPad and researchers noted that “mean anxiety scores were significantly lower among those who participated in guided art observation, compared to those who did not”.

Rather than using art to decorate hospital rooms and hallways, the project aimed to use artwork to start conversations with patients.

Almost 86% of participants reported feeling distracted in a positive way, with 79.6% saying they felt less bored. Just under 47% of patients noted reduced feelings of anxiety, and 24.5% said they felt less depressed. The study is published in the journal Supportive Care in Cancer.

Dogs are part of the care team at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in the United States. More than 15 volunteer therapy dog teams visit children and adults across the hospital and its children’s centre. The dogs are linked with lowered blood pressure in patients and positive changes in terms of pain, mood and other areas of distress, the hospital says.

A study of dog therapy in Johns Hopkins’ intensive care unit in 2017, published in the journal Critical Care, found other benefits to this non-pharmacological approach, including increasing patients’ motivation to become more active.

The health benefits of physical exercise are well known and include helping to manage and prevent diseases like heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and eight types of cancer, according to the National Institute on Aging, which researches healthy ageing in the United States.

A recent study in the journal Neuroscience News found that high levels of physical activity once a week, like swimming or playing tennis, helps to lower the risk of developing chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Studies have shown that music therapy can help treat children and young people with anxiety-based disorders. This might involve making music with the young person, using apps and accessible instruments like drums and keyboards.

Singing is another form of music therapy. Studies have shown that singing can improve the quality of life of people with dementia and their carers. A review of literature published in the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias described singing as an “accessible and underused” way of alleviating distress in both care receivers and caregivers.

How health settings are designed is another factor that can affect patient recovery.

Spending time in nature is known to boost health and wellbeing, and buildings are now being designed to reflect this.

For example, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, UK, is the first children’s hospital in Europe to be built in a public park. There are views of nature from all parts of the campus, which includes outdoor garden areas inside the hospital and covered, open-air play decks on every ward.

Other non-pharmacological heath treatments include therapeutic massage and reminiscence therapy, which focuses on patients making sense of their own life story.