Nakamura S1, Sonezaki S2, Hayashida Y3 and Sato T4*
Objective: Pottery therapy is an art therapy technique, with effects having been reported by questionnaire analysis and case studies. However, it is not precisely clear what physiological changes are caused by pottery therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pottery therapy using heart rate variability analysis.
Methods: Participants for this study were 11 undergraduate students at Saga University in Japan who had a mental health problem. The pottery therapy consisted of a group session of up to 5 persons once a week. Each session took place for about 90 min. Heart rate variability (HRV) was measured for 5 minutes before and after the pottery therapy. Participants were divided into two groups: a therapy group and a control group. HRV was calculated for time and frequency domains using the check my heart software.
Results: In the pottery therapy group, the Poincaré plot parameters SD1, SD2, S, and RMSSD were significantly increased following therapy (p<0.05). There was no significant change of LF/HF between pre-test and post-test (p=0.374). In the control group, no parameters were significantly changed during a session without pottery therapy.
Conclusion: The new finding from this study is that pottery therapy is effective as demonstrated by Poincaré analysis.
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Mental Disorders and Treatment received 556 citations as per Google Scholar report
