Resources & references

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.

Click here to watch a video about this article. 

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 article explores the evidence-based benefits of music therapy among adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. It references existing research showing how music enhances communication, cognitive functioning, physical activity, memory, reality orientation, and quality of life.

Learn more about the benefits of music therapy by seeing a music therapy experience in action 

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 reference book offers a  comprehensive look at the use of music therapy with elderly and those living with dementia based on the research and experience of experts from around the world. It can serve as a resource for caregivers and families of individuals with dementia or Alzheimer's disease and for music therapists.

Click here to see an example of how music therapy has been used in dementia care

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

Click here to read the related research study.

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. 

Heather Overly, a board-certified music therapist leads a music therapy session with an older adult in hospice care. She explains how music therapy can improve quality of life among this population.

This research article investigates the effects of music therapy for adults with chronic and progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) based on current studies. The results prove that music therapy addresses emotional, physical, and interpersonal challenges that come from acquired disabilities.

This book presents some of the work from music therapists working in different approaches, in different countries, showing how valuable the inclusion of music therapy in palliative care has already proved to be. It is important for the dying, or those with terminal illness, that approaches are used which integrate the physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions of their being. 

This book chapter explains the effects of music therapy in palliative care. It is derived from the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine (5th Ed) published by the Oxford University Press. Note: The link includes the full text of the chapter (i.e., 18 pages plus references).