Background: Patients with a terminal disease report a high need for psychosocial and spiritual support. Previous literature reviews on psychosocial interventions in palliative care were restricted to certain subtypes of techniques, included a wide range of patients, conditions, and settings, or required a number of sessions unrealistic to be achieved in patients nearing the end of their lives. Aim: The aim of this study was to review and synthesize the evidence on brief psychosocial interventions (i.e. four sessions or less and less than 21 days) for patients receiving palliative treatment. Design: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis in accordance with standard guidelines and a pre-registered protocol (PROSPERO: CRD42018082713). Data sources: Electronic databases, journals, and references were searched for controlled clinical trials. We used the Cochrane criteria to assess the risk of bias within studies. Results: In total, 15 studies met the eligibility criteria and reported the effects of 17 interventions and a total of 1248 patients. The most frequently used techniques were life review techniques and music therapy. After exclusion of outliers, psychosocial interventions showed to be superior with regard to the improvement of quality of life (effect size = 0.36, confidence interval = 0.08 to 0.64), and the reduction of emotional (effect size = −0.51, confidence interval = −0.77 to −0.26) and existential distress (effect size = −0.40, confidence interval = −0.71 to −0.07) compared to the control groups. Conclusion: Brief psychosocial interventions can improve clinically relevant health outcomes and should therefore be made available for patients receiving palliative care.

How music can provide a pathway to affective well-being has mostly been investigated with regard to listening to music or music therapy. Comparatively less is known about the effects of active music making on well-being in everyday life or its underlying mechanisms. Self-Determination Theory emphasizes the importance of fulfillment of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness for well-being and offers a valuable framework for explaining the postulated link between music making and well-being. In the present daily-diary study, 1,042 hobby musicians (age range 13 to 82 years; 65.3 % female) completed online assessments of their music making, need fulfillment, and positive and negative affect each day for ten consecutive days. Results showed that need satisfaction and positive affect were higher, while need dissatisfaction and negative affect were lower on days when participants reported music making. Multilevel structural equation models indicated that the effect of music making on positive affect was mediated by satisfaction of all three needs, with statistically significant indirect effects via autonomy and competence at both the within-and between person level, and relatedness only at the between-person level. There were no statistically significant mediation effects for negative affect. This study is the first to provide evidence for higher affective well-being of hobby musicians on days of music making.Results further suggest satisfaction of basic psychological needs as a mediating mechanism and emphasize the importance to distinguish between indicators of positive functioning (positive affect, need satisfaction) and negative functioning (negative affect, need dissatisfaction).

No abstract