Resources & references

Presentation by Tanya Lavoie, certified music therapist, working at the Montreal Children's Hospital.

At McGuire VA Medical Center, Hope Kumme, a certified music therapist, uses music to help veterans with PTSD and other chronic ailments. Learn how group music therapy sessions have helped clients improve pain management, mood, and quality of life.

The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of a single music therapy session to reduce pain in palliative care patients. This research validates that a single music therapy intervention incorporating therapist-guided autogenic relaxation and live music was effective in lowering pain in palliative care patients.

Music therapists at the Montreal Children's Hospital explain how they use musical experiences to help babies, children, and adolscents with various needs express emotions, self-regulate, enhance relaxation, build social skills, and improve motor skills.

Discover the benefits of music therapy in the treatment of chronic pain in adults, in this article about research projects from Dr Katie Fitzpatrick and Dr Joke Bradt.

An article about Katie Fitzpatrick, who has dedicated her education and career to music therapy and is blazing a trail in the treatment of chronic pain.

This book chapter examines the uses of music therapy for pain management in adults medical settings. It delineates criteria for referral and assessment, and an overview of methods and techniques.

This study examines parental perception of music therapy for children in a university hospital's pediatric intensive care unit (ICU). It found that the positive potentials of music therapy in pediatric ICU care reported in other studies could be used to promote the psychological well-being of parents and children, reduce anxiety, and manage pain.

This study explored family members’ perceptions of music therapy experiences of a relative in palliative and hospice care, alongside patient self-reports and music therapist assessments of change. Patients showed significant improvements in pain, depression, distress, and mood, while family members reported immediate positive effects on both patients and themselves.

This article explores how music therapy can serve as a self-care management resource for improving self-efficacy and mediating the relationship between vulnerability factors and health outcomes for patients with sickle cell disease. Accordingly, it is important for appropriate patient reported outcomes to be used within practice and research to capture these important domains and improve our understanding of how music therapy can help individuals with chronic pain achieve meaningful outcomes.

A music therapy program in the waiting room of a burn unit uses active music therapy experiences to support patients, by enhancing pain management and reducing pain perception.

This article provides recommendations for music therapy practice and research among individuals with chronic pain using sickle cell disease as an exemplar condition. The research on music therapy for chronic pain management has shown that music therapy is particularly helpful in improving people's pain-related self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is well recognized to play an essential role in effective management of chronic pain.