Psycho-social interventions for cancer patients in isolation for bone marrow transplant (BMT) have been advocated in the recent literature. It is not clear what type of interventions would be most appropriate. This study was conducted at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), with three aims. (1) To test the feasibility of introducing art therapy as a supportive intervention for adult BMT patients in isolation. Nine patients were seen in art therapy sessions twice a week while in isolation, and were helped to develop free personal images. The three art therapists used the same art therapy program as a model. (2) To assess how patients would use the program. Forty-two images were made by the nine patients during the art therapy sessions. A thematic analysis of the images showed that the patients used art therapy effectively in three ways: (a) to strengthen their positive feelings, (b) to alleviate their distress, and (c) to clarify their existential/spiritual issues. (3) The third aim was to identify which patients would most benefit from art therapy. Our results suggest that the non-verbal metaphorical modality of art therapy may be especially beneficial for patients who need to deal with emotional conflicts, and with feelings about life and death, in a safe setting.
The results suggest that because of its abstract symbolic feature, the Body Outline is a very flexible therapeutic intervention. It must be offered within the relationship with the art therapist, and it may fulfill quite a variety of expressive needs, from the description of physical pain to the elaboration of spiritual longings.
The results suggest that referral to art therapy from the team might be helpful and appropriate: (1) when patients are anxious; (2) when they are uncommunicative and hide their feelings; and (3) when they feel disconnected from their loved ones at home.
Summary. All Rhesus negative multiparous women receiving ante‐natal care at University College Hospital, Ibadan, between 1958 and 1965 were tested for evidence of Rhesus immunization. In this otherwise unselected group of 443 patients there were 20 cases of proven immunization (overall incidence 4.5%). Nine of the immunized women had had transfusions of Rhesus positive blood and therefore, the frequency of immunization by pregnancy alone is only 11/434, or 2.5%. Analysis of the clinical data on the newborns has shown a more benign course in the group of babies born from women immunized by transfusion, when compared to those born from women immunized by pregnancy.
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