Resources & references

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of music therapy support groups (MTSG) on physical, psychological, and social functioning of cancer patients and caregivers. A mixed-methods approach was used, including an experimental, randomized, controlled trial and qualitative data from participant comments. The experimental group demonstrated statistically significant changes pre- to post-session in (a) pain in three sessions; (b) mood, stress, and anxiety in all six sessions; and (c) quality of life in two sessions.

This research article reviewed existing studies to evaluate the efficacy of music therapy in supporting adults going through cancer treatment. The results showed that music therapy was effective in improving psychosocial wellbeing, pain management, and enhancing quality of life.

This research article evaluates current studies that explore the benefits of music therapy for individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The results showed that music therapy offers psychosocial and emotional benefits such as improving self-acceptance and reducing anxiety and depression.

 Music therapy can uniquely help severely injured children and their families deal with the events surrounding an accident and its aftermath. The use of music therapy in treating these families on a pediatric service is described and illustrated with a fracture patient and a burn patient

In 1997, a music therapy program was first piloted in a community mental health clubhouse and six months later expanded to five community mental health group homes, in British Columbia, Canada. An article published in 2000 described the predominantly song-based approach of that program and documented the participant's evaluation of it, concluding that the client-centred empowerment model of consumer inclusiveness appeared to contribute significantly to the rehabilitative effect of the program. In this article published in 2020, the authors report on the current status of the program, including new data.

The objective of this phenomenological research is to document the experience of music therapists practicing in mental health with adults receiving services in community and hospital settings in Quebec. Reflections, recommendations, research ideas, and the results of interviews are presented here. It is hoped that this work will help to foster the use of music therapy practices in mental health, an innovative and creative approach.

This research article offers rational for protocolized music teletherapy (MTT) for older adults with Alzheimer’s disease. MTT made music therapy services more accessible and was effective in addressing neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Entrainment is defined by a temporal locking process in which one system’s motion or signal frequency entrains the frequency of another system. This process is a universal phenomenon that can be observed in physical (e.g., pendulum clocks) and biological systems (e.g. fire flies). However, entrainment can also be observed between human sensory and motor systems. The function of rhythmic entrainment in rehabilitative training and learning was established for the first time by Thaut and colleagues in several research studies in the early 1990s. It was shown that the inherent periodicity of auditory rhythmic patterns could entrain movement patterns in patients with movement disorders (see for a review: Thaut et al, 1999). Physiological, kinematic and behavioral movement analysis showed very quickly that entrainment cues not only changed the timing of movement but also improved spatial and force parameters. Mathematical models have shown that anticipatory rhythmic templates as critical time constraints can result in the complete specification of the dynamics of a movement over the entire movement cycle, thereby optimizing motor planning and execution. Furthermore, temporal rhythmic entrainment has been successfully extended into applications in cognitive rehabilitation and speech and language rehabilitation, and thus become one of the major neurological mechanisms linking music and rhythm to brain rehabilitation. These findings provided a scientific basis for the development of Neurologic Music Therapy.

Modern music therapy, starting around the middle of the twentieth century was primarily conceived to promote emotional well-being and to facilitate social group association and integration. Therefore, it was rooted mostly in social science concepts. More recently, music as therapy began to move decidedly toward perspectives of neuroscience. This has been facilitated by the advent of neuroimaging techniques that help uncover the therapeutic mechanisms for non-musical goals in the brain processes underlying music perception, cognition, and production. In this paper, we focus on executive function (EF) and attentional processes (AP) that are central for cognitive rehabilitation efforts. To this end, we summarize existing behavioral as well as neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies in musicians, non-musicians, and clinical populations. 

The Discovering Relationship Using Music, Beliefs, Emotions, Attitudes & Thoughts (DRUMBEAT) program used drumming as a way of engaging at risk youth in a form of musical expression, while simultaneously incorporating themes and discussions relating to healthy relationships with others. The results support the underlying program theory, that combining the therapeutic potential of musical expression with basic cognitive–behavioural therapy can be used successfully to deliver a range of social learning outcomes, including emotional control, improved relationships and increased self-esteem.

This research article investigates who how music therapy and physical therapy can benefit individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). It demonstrates how these types of therapies can enhance rehabilitation, treat symptoms, decrease the use of medication, and improve overall wellbeing.
 

This article describes a music therapy program in a maximum security psychiatric state facility. Brief descriptions of the patient population, admission and discharge criteria, safety and security concerns, music therapy interventions, and behavioral strategies are given in order to provide a picture of the program and the concerns associated with this population.