EFFECTIVENESS OF ART THERAPY AS TREATMENT FOR DEPRESSION: A COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL AND CONTROL GROUPS ON THE COGNITIVE, SOMATIC AND AFFECTIVE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION AMONG INCARCERATED WOMEN AT LANGATA WOMEN PRISON NAIROBI - KENYA

Abstract

This paper sought to establish the effectiveness of art therapy as a treatment for depression at
Langata Women’s Prison (LWP) in Nairobi in order to identify the psychological intervention
measures to be used to alleviate and treat depression. The paper hypothesized that prisoners who
undergo art therapy as treatment would experience a reduction of depressive symptoms. The 21item
Becks Depression Inventory (BDI-II) assessment self-report scale was given to 217 women
prisoners to identify the prevalence and severity levels of depression. Of these, 104 were in prison
and 113 in remand and since 17 responses were invalid, the sample reduced to 94 sentenced and
106 remands, respectively. Due to prison exigencies, a sample of 57 was further drawn out of the
106 remands based on their levels of depression. These 57 were then divided into 29 and 28 as
experimental and control groups, respectively. Out of the 29 remands in the experimental group,
22 filled the post the BDI-II, whereas 11 remands, among the control group filled the post BDI- II
assessment self-report scale. After six weeks both the experimental and control groups were again
subjected to the BDI-II assessment self-report scale (post-test). Most of the incarcerated women
were found to have severe depression with those in remand registering much higher levels of
severe depression. There was a significant reduction of depression after administering art therapy
to the experimental group, but no significant difference in the control group which was not
subjected to art therapy. From the experimental group, the results indicated that after treatment,
the respondents’ cognitive, somatic and affective symptoms of depression reduced. On the other
hand, with respect to the control group the results indicated minimal changes in cognitive
symptoms; negligible changes in somatic symptoms; and little change occurred in the affective
symptoms. The paper recommends adoption of art therapy as one of the approaches towards
reduction of depression among incarcerated women at LWP. Further, the Kenya Prison Services
(KPS) needs to improve psychiatric services within the prison and screen inmates periodically for depression by trained professionals. Further studies could be replicated in other women’s prisons,
men s prisons as well as borstal institutions. Such studies in future should include both remands
and the sentenced for comparative purposes.