State of poetry therapy research (review)

The goal of this article is to give an overview of the state of poetry therapy research, thus offering a basis for designing and carrying out optimized study projects and contributing to the further establishment of poetry therapy. Database research was carried out using Amed, Cochrane, Embase, Medline, Psycinfo and Psyindex. The search words used were ‘poetry therapy’, ‘therapeutic writing’ and ‘writing therapy’. The studies were classified according to country, subject, publication date and level of evidence-based medicine. A total of 1129 entries were found, 203 of which were used for this analysis. The majority of the studies were conducted in the United States in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Investigative activities reached the highest levels in the period from 1999 to 2010. Most of the studies corresponded to level 5 on the scale of evidence-based medicine. The findings show that poetry therapy is already more established and documented in the United States than in other countries. The greatest amount of experience has been collected in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. Studies in other areas (e.g. oncology), however, point to future ranges of application. The rising levels of interest over the past 10 years in poetry therapy and its scientific establishment have encouraged additional research projects for which appropriate evaluation methods need to be developed.