Resources & references

This study aimed to co-design an international best practice agenda for research into music therapy for informal carers of patients pre- and post-death bereavement. Results show that the effectiveness of music therapy in supporting informal carers across the bereavement continuum should be prioritised. This should be done using a mixed methods design to draw on the strengths of different methodological approaches to building the evidence base. It should involve service users throughout.

The purpose of this study was to design and pilot a music therapy-driven grief processing assessment instrument with bereaved adolescents receiving group songwriting interventions. Grief process areas were developed through a descriptive analysis of a total of 123 songs previously written by bereaved adolescents who received weekly music therapy and grief counselling over a period of 36 months. 

This pilot controlled prospective and cohort trial assessed feasibility and effects of twice-weekly group West African drum circle classes for 6 weeks on Parkinson's Disease (PD) patients’ quality of life, symptoms, motor findings, cognition, and mood. Drum circle classes significantly and reversibly improved quality of life in patients with PD.

This study presents music therapy group work with six soldiers diagnosed as suffering from combat or terror related PTSD. Some reduction in PTSD symptoms was observed following drumming, especially increased sense of openness, togetherness, belonging, sharing, closeness, connectedness and intimacy, as well as achieving a non-intimidating access to traumatic memories, facilitating an outlet for rage and regaining a sense of self-control.

The purpose of this two-part study was to confirm the relationship between dyadic drum playing and social skills and to further develop a rhythm-mediated music therapy intervention for improving the social skills of children with ASD. Participants showed greater engagement in joint action following the intervention. This study supports potential benefit of the rhythm-mediated intervention using dyadic drum playing and provides preliminary evidence strengthening its use in the social domain for individuals with ASD.

This study is about music therapy with adolescents undergoing chemotherapy.  A significant reduction in anxiety, nausea and vomiting was observed. Furthermore, perceived stress and psychological/physical wellbeing were improved in participants. 

 The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the efficacy of a music therapy protocol on mood states and levels of group cohesiveness in adult oncology patients. Participants took part in "music making" sessions (where the mechanism for change included the process of making music) and "music responding" sessions (where the mechanism included the process of responding to music). 

This systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in burn patients was performed to determine the effect of music during treatments. In summary, a positive correlation was found between treatments including music interventions and pain alleviation, anxiety relief, and heart rate reduction in burn patients. However, additional high-quality studies with carefully considered music interventions for burn patients are still needed.

The authors of this review conducted a systematic search on published articles examining effects of music, music therapy (MT) and music based interventions (MBI), and found 34 quantitative and six qualitative studies. Beneficial effects of MT and MBI on emotional and motivational outcomes, participation, locus of control, and perceived helpfulness were reported. The analysis of the qualitative studies revealed four themes: emotional expression, group interaction, development of skills, and improvement of quality of life.

This study examined whether a 6-part music therapy intervention was feasible, acceptable, and beneficial among adults with sickle cell disease and chronic pain. Interviews revealed two themes related to participants’ experience of music therapy: 1) participants learned new self-management skills and 2) music therapy improved participants’ ability to cope with pain. 

This case study sought to discover the effects of structured music activity sessions on eye contact and communication skills of Hunter; a six year old, high functioning child with autism.

 This article suggests a provisional paradigm shift from disability as pathology, to disability as neurodiversity: this has the potential to productively resituate the epistemological orientations of music therapy, both as a field of inquiry and a domain of practice. Drawaing from their own work on the ethnomusicology of autism, as well as from research and writings in disability studies and autistic self-advocacy, they propose that the relativistic foundations of ethnomusicology offer a potentially useful alternative and complement to the principally treatment-directed foundations of music therapy.