"Proponents of the arts have long argued that creative therapy can help ageing patients."

"Now, scientists have begun investigating that claim."

"The healthcare system really needs to pay attention much more than it has in the past to primary prevention among older adults, to improve the health of individuals and help them maintain it," says [Thomas Prohaska, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia].

"I would suggest that art has a major role. Where it stands in the scheme of things is yet to be determined."

How much have we spent already on all this art therapy? Why are we only now getting the science? There's an awful lot of sentimentality around the idea of art. Of course, it must be uplifting and vitalizing. But is it?