Resources & references

Music therapy allows children with visual impairment to reach their goals and develop their motor, cognitive and communications skills. Children who are part of the group explain why they enjoy music therapy. 

The objectives of the study were: i) to describe the characteristics and effectiveness of music therapy interventions which aim to improve health-related outcomes for adult informal carers of adults with life-threatening illness, and ii) to describe the experience of music therapy for adult informal carers of adults with life-threatening illness. Conclusion: qualitative studies provide moderate to strong evidence for improved health-related outcomes for adult informal carers of adults with life-threatening illness pre-bereavement. 

This study employed an online survey to investigate current approaches, clinical interventions, and outcome measures used by music therapists working with young children with acquired communication impairments (ACIs)  to address language- and communication-oriented goals. Among the diverse range of interventions employed by music therapists, song singing, vocal improvisation, and music and play emerged as the most effective techniques for supporting individuals with ACIs in achieving their goals. 

This article describes a qualitative single-case study of the treatment of a woman having problems with grief and finding a personal identity. The music therapist used several techniques of improvisation to support the client's cautious steps into a new musical and a new personal world.

 The Aberdeen Hospital's first music therapist, Kelsey MacDonald, plays an important role in improving the health and quality of life for the hospital patients and families

This article provides background information on visual impairments and the impact of these disorders on social connectedness, activities of daily living, mood, quality of life, and child development. Implications and potential for music therapy for visually-impaired children and adults are discussed.

 Music therapy improves the health of premature babies and boosts parental bonding

This paper updates an earlier review that encouraged the music therapy community to continuing investigating the efficacy of music therapy in treatment of substance abuse. 12 studies met inclusion for this review. The most common music therapy method to be investigated was lyric analysis, followed by music and imagery methods, and then songwriting. Recommendations include suggestions for reducing bias in future studies and continued research.

This video features a presentation by Dr. Laurel Young, PhD, MTA, about music therapy in bereavement care. This presentation provides an overview of music therapy in bereavement care. Dr. Young will review existing literature and share examples from her own clinical work and research. She also makes recommendations for future practice and research. 

This brief entry is a summary of a peer-reviewed article. It explains succinctly what is music therapy in palliative care. 

The article describes an innovative method of facilitating grief resolution using precomposed music that is significant to the patient after a major loss. In this method, music is of equal importance with verbal processing as part of the overall therapeutic approach. Musical improvization is also used as a primary tool to reflect back to, and affirm for, the patient the affective content of his or her life story. 

The main objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of music therapy to manage pain and anxiety during labor. The primary outcomes were measured by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). Music therapy seems to have beneficial effects on pain intensity and anxiety during labor, especially for women giving birth for the first time.