Efficacy of Arts-based Social Prescribing for Mental Health in Adults with Psychiatric Diagnoses: Results from a Randomised Controlled Trial

Background: It is unclear whether arts-based social prescribing is efficacious for people with mental illness. Methods: Three hundred and eighty two adults, mean age 52 years +/- 14 years, in the community with psychiatric diagnoses receiving care as usual (CAU) by their mental health care teams in Greece, were referred via a novel Arts on Prescription scheme. Participants were randomised either to a group-based art intervention (art+CAU) in the form of regular activities involving theatre, cinema, photography, museum visits, or music events, or a waitlist-control (CAU) for 12 weeks. Participants were evaluated at baseline 6 and 12 weeks via the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) for anxiety, and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMBS) for wellbeing. Outcomes: At 12 weeks, 156 and 155 for art + CAU and CAU respectively completed the trial. In linear mixed effects models (n = 373 participants), art + CAU led to greater decreases in depression (estimated marginal mean, EMM -1.63, 95%CI -2.81 to -0.45), anxiety (EMM -1.62, 95%CI -2.59 to -0.66), and wellbeing (EMM 2.69, 95%CI 0.71 to 4.67). A significant interaction between group and time was observed for all three outcomes, depression: (F(2, 661) = 5.45, p = 0.0045), anxiety (F(2, 657.90) = 6.02, p = 0.0026), and wellbeing (F(2, 657.37) = 3.0365, p = 0.049). There were greater reliable improvements for both PHQ-9 and GAD-7 (≥6 and ≥4 point decreases respectively) in the art+CAU (15.2% and 17.17%, respectively) compared to the CAU group (5.5% and 8.79%, respectively). There were no adverse events in either arm.