The effectiveness of combining mindfulness and art-making on depression, anxiety and shame in sexual assault victims: A pilot study

Abstract

This article describes an 8-week intervention program for 16 female sexual assault victims in Iran aged 20–49. Sexual assault causes negative psychological consequences such as depression, anxiety and shame in victims. Although evidence-based treatments are effective in trauma treatment, they sometimes cannot cover the therapeutic needs of all patients and they have high dropout rates. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of combining mindfulness and art-making on depression, anxiety and shame in female Iranian sexual assault victims who were randomly assigned to control or experimental group in this study. Psychological questionnaire data were collected (Impact of Event Scale - Revised (IES-R), Beck’s Depression Inventory-2 (BDI-2), Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and The Personal Feelings Questionnaire-2 (PFQ-2)) to assess the Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity and the changes in depression, anxiety and shame symptoms during the program. After conducting a one-way analysis of covariance, the findings indicated statistically significant effects of combining mindfulness and art-making on reducing depression, anxiety and shame symptoms in post-test and follow-up stages compared to no treatment controls. This article suggests that this program could facilitate the process of treatment for female sexually assaulted victims as an independent therapy or as a supplementary treatment accompanied by evidence-based methods.