A review of the use of drama therapy in the treatment of behavioral disorders in children and adolescents

The aim of the present study was to review the use of drama therapy in treating and reducing the symptoms of common behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. The research was conducted with a systematic review method. For this purpose, with the keywords "drama therapy", "behavioral disorder", "behavioral disorders", "children", "adolescents", and "behavioral problems" in Farsi and English languages in Science Direct, Google Scholar and The internal databases of SID, Normex and Civilica related articles and scientific resources were searched and collected. The total number of related research that was found was 2372, of which 500 articles were reviewed (abstract and title). 370 articles were removed due to the researches being unrelated to the purpose of the present study and repetition in the database. In the end, the total number of reviewed researches (full text) reached 130 articles, and by removing 87 articles due to insufficient information, finally 38 researches were reviewed in this systematic review. The results of this review research showed that drama therapy has been used as an effective intervention in treating and reducing the symptoms of behavioral disorders. Considering the existence of effective research on the use of drama therapy in the treatment of behavioral disorders of children and adolescents, it is possible to suggest the use of this therapeutic method as an effective intervention to psychologists and counselors.