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Cited by 186Diversity and Impact of DanceArt Therapy and Mental HealthTreatment of Major Depression

Effectiveness of dance movement therapy in the treatment of adults with depression: a systematic review with meta-analyses

Open access
Karkou, Vicky, Aithal, Supritha, Zubala, Ania, Meekums, Bonnie·2019·Frontiers in Psychology
DOI 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00936PMC PMC6509172
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Abstract

Background: Depression is the largest cause of mental ill health worldwide. Although interventions such as Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) may offer interesting and acceptable treatment options, current clinical guidelines do not include these interventions in their recommendations mainly because of what is perceived as insufficient research evidence. The 2015 Cochrane review on DMT for depression includes only three RCTs leading to inconclusive results. It is therefore, necessary to also look beyond such designs in order to identify and assess the range of current evidence. Methods: We therefore, conducted a systematic review of studies that aimed to explore the effectiveness in the use of DMT with people with depression. This led to a qualitative narrative synthesis followed by a subgroup analysis and a sensitivity analysis. In all meta-analyses a random effects model was used with Standardised Mean Differences (SMD) to accommodate for the heterogeneity of studies and outcome measures. Results: From the 817 studies reviewed, eight studies met our inclusion criteria. 351 people with depression (mild to severe) participated, 192 of whom attended DMT groups while receiving treatment as usual (TAU) and 159 received TAU only. Qualitative findings suggest there was a decrease in depression scores in favour of DMT groups in all studies. Subgroup analysis performed on depression scores before and three months after the completion of DMT groups suggested changes in favour of the DMT groups. When sensitivity analysis was performed, RCTs at high risk of bias were excluded, leaving only studies with adult clients up to the age of 65. In these studies, the highest effect size was found favouring DMT plus TAU for adults with depression, when compared to TAU only. Conclusions: Based on studies with moderate to high quality, we concluded that DMT is an effective intervention in the treatment of depression with adults. Furthermore, by drawing on a wide range of designs with diverse quality, we were able to compile a comprehensive picture of relevant trends. Despite the fact that there remains a paucity of high-quality studies, the results have relevance to both policy-making and clinical practice, and become a platform for further research.

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  • There is growing evidence that DMT may have a positive psychological impact on the psychological states of patients with somatic concerns.

    “There is growing evidence that DMT, a creative body–mind form of psychotherapy, may have a positive psychological impact on the psychological states of patients with somatic concerns.”

    From The Development of Mindful-Based Dance Movement Therapy Intervention for Chronic Pain: A Pilot Study With Chronic Headache Patients (2021) · cites this paper as Karkou et al., 2019

    The Discussion (Summary of Main Results; page unavailable) reports that DMT can have a positive impact on patients with a primary diagnosis of depression. The claim extends that finding to patients with somatic concerns, a population for which the review does not report a corresponding result. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • These results can also support the results from a large-scale clinical trial on DMT and depression and meta-analyses on DMT for depression.

    “These results can also support the results from a large-scale clinical trial on DMT and depression (Hyvönen et al., 2020) and meta-analyses on DMT for depression (Meekums et al., 2015; Karkou et al., 2019).”

    From The Development of Mindful-Based Dance Movement Therapy Intervention for Chronic Pain: A Pilot Study With Chronic Headache Patients (2021) · cites this paper as Karkou et al., 2019

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1 of the 113 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 11

  1. Deeks J. J. Higgins J. P. (2010). Statistical Algorithms in Review Manager 5. Statistical Methods Group of the Cochrane Collaboration, 1–11. Available online at: https://training.cochrane.org/handbook/statistical-methods-revman5 (accessed December 20, 2018).
  2. Genetti A. (2011). A Phenomenological Study of Experiences of Participants With Depression in a Dance Movement Psychotherapy Group in the Community. MSc Dissertation, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh.
  3. Karkou V. (1998). A Descriptive Evaluation of the Practice of Arts Therapies in the UK. Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester.
  4. Karkou V. (2015). Dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) for depression: working with body-based narratives to ‘re-story' one's experience, in Paper Presented at the Arts Therapies Conference (Olomouc), 13– 15.
  5. Karkou V. Omylinska-Thurston J. Thurston S. Lewis J. (2019). The arts for the blues: overview - an interdisciplinary collaboration between therapists and artists for dissemination and innovation in the treatment of depression, in Paper Presented at the Arts and Psychotherapy Symposium (Ormskirk: Edge Hill University).
  6. Lipsey M. W. Wilson D. B. (2001). Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 49. Practical Meta-Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
  7. Meekums B. (1998). Recovery from Child Sexual Abuse Trauma Within an Arts Therapies Programme for Women. Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester.
  8. Punkanen M. Saarikallio S. Leinonen O. Forsblom A. Kulju K. K. M. Luck G. (2017). Emotions in motion: depression in dance-movement and dance-movement in treatment of depression, in The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing, eds Karkou V. Oliver S. Lycouris S. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press), 839– 863.
  9. Whitehouse M. (1979). C G Jung and dance-therapy: two major principles, in Eight Theoretical Approaches in Dance/Movement Therapy, Vol. 1 ed Bernstein P. L. (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt), 51– 70.
  10. Xiong L. Li M. Li Q. (2009). Influence of dance therapy on self-efficacy and rehabilitation of patients with depression. Chin. Nurs. Res. 23, 3138– 3139. 10.3969/j.issn.1009-6493.2009.34.015 · DOI
  11. Zubala A. (2013). Description and Evaluation of Arts Therapies Practice With Depression in the UK. Doctoral thesis, Queen Margaret University. Retrieved from: http://etheses.qmu.ac.uk/1775/

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Authors
Karkou, V., Aithal, S., Zubala, A., & Meekums, B.
Affiliations
  • Edge Hill University (GB)
  • University of the Highlands and Islands (GB)
Corresponding author
Karkou, Vicky
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Psychology
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2019-05-03
Volume
10
Pages
936-936
ISSN
1664-1078 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00936
PMC
PMC6509172
OpenAlex
W2943614870
Cited by
186
References
113
Citations by year
2026: 42 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 4
FWCI
2.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Frontiers in Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Edge Hill University Research Information Repository (Edge Hill University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Edge Hill University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Diversity and Impact of Dance
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Conservation › Art Therapy and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Treatment of Major Depression
Keywords
dance therapy, depression, adults, treatment effectiveness, group therapy, usual care, non-randomized studies, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis

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