Should art be integrated into cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders?

• Two participants with anxiety disorders received cognitive behavioral art therapy.
• Intervention reduced panic attacks, anxiety and agoraphobia in panic disorder.
• Intervention reduced general anxiety in generalized anxiety disorder.
• Artwork helped both participants concretize abstract information and track progress.

Although cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the preferred treatment method for anxiety disorders, it is underutilized and has been critiqued for being too verbal or abstract. Due to the role of imagery in maintaining anxiety disorders, art may be a useful addition to CBT for anxiety disorders. Art was incorporated into a brief CBT model in two quantitative case studies: Case 1 for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) and Case 2 for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). The A-B, single-subject experimental design included a two-week baseline period and a seven-week intervention period in both cases. The participant with PDA recorded her symptoms of PDA and her level of general anxiety throughout the baseline and intervention periods using a panic diary, whereas the participant with GAD recorded her level of general anxiety. In Case 1 for PDA, the intervention resulted in statistically significant reductions in panic frequency and some features of panic anxiety and agoraphobia. In Case 2 for GAD, the decrease in general anxiety was marginally significant.