Effects of a Music Therapy Strategy on Depressed Older Adults

Abstract

A music-facilitated psychoeducational strategy was developed as a cost-effective and accessible intervention for older adults experiencing symptoms of depression, distress, and anxiety. Thirty older adults who had been diagnosed with major or minor depressive disorder were randomly assigned to one of three 8-week conditions: (1) a home-based program where participants learned music listening stress reduction techniques at weekly home visits by a music therapist; (2) a self-administered program where participants applied these same techniques with moderate therapist intervention (a weekly telephone call); or (3) a wait list control. Participants in both music conditions performed significantly better than the controls on standardized tests of depression, distress, self-esteem, and mood. These improvements were clinically significant and maintained over a 9-month follow-up period. The potential for this type of intervention with homebound elders and others who have limited access to services is discussed.

Music therapy in moderate and severe dementia of Alzheimer's type: a case–control study

“…A study using a crossover design on 39 individuals with agitation and severe cognitive impairment showed a significant reduction in agitation during and following an individualized compared to a classical music session (Gerdner, 2000). Music therapy has been used as treatment of depressed mood in older individuals without dementia (Hanser and Thompson, 1994;Suzuki, 1998) as well as with dementia (Ashida, 2000). Only a few studies have been conducted using quantitative measures of the effects of music therapy.…”

Complementary and Alternative Therapies for Cancer

“…Typically they hold graduate degrees in music therapy and are trained to deal with the psychosocial as well as clinical issues faced by patients and family members. Music therapy is particularly effective in the palliative care setting, with randomized trials indicating benefit for reducing anxiety [92][93][94][95][96], depression [97][98][99], and pain [100,101].…”

Identity and self-esteem in the context of music and music therapy: a review

“…The final sample included 9 studies of intervention effects (Aldridge et al, 2005;Chen, Hannibal, & Gold, 2016;Clendenon-Wallen, 1991;Grocke et al, 2014;Haines, 1989;Hanser & Thompson, 1994;Henderson, 1983;Sharma & Jagdev, 2012;Wu, 2002), 1 case study (Smeijsters & van den Hurk, 1999), 2 exploratory studies (Daykin, McClean, & Bunt, 2007;Pavlicevic, O'Neil, Powell, Jones, & Sampathianaki, 2014) and 2 theoretical articles (Amir, 2012;Gleadhill & Ferris, 2010). Sample sizes ranged from 1 (Smeijsters & van den Hurk, 1999) to 200 (Chen et al, 2016).…”

“…We included types of participants with the following problems/diagnosis: adjustment reaction (Henderson, 1983), lacking crucial self-esteem and self-concept (Haines, 1989), severe learning disabilities (Pavlicevic et al, 2014), problems due to fear, depression, and low self-esteem (Wu, 2002), low self-esteem and high academic stress (Sharma & Jagdev, 2012), adolescents who had been sexually abused in the past (Clendenon-Wallen, 1991), prisoners (Chen et al, 2016), severe mental illness (Grocke et al, 2014), depression of various degrees of severity and schizophrenia (Hanser & Thompson, 1994), an adult woman who had problems in finding her personal identity and suffered badly from grief, low self-esteem, and feelings of depression (Smeijsters & van den Hurk, 1999), patients diagnosed with cancer (Daykin et al, 2007), multiple sclerosis (Aldridge et al, 2005), and dissociative identity disorder (Gleadhill & Ferris, 2010). In summary, 5 trials included children up to 18 years old, and 6 concerned adults.…”

“…One example of research on the effectiveness of MT among the elderly is a study by Hanser and Thompson (1994). The authors aimed to evaluate the effects of listening to music on different ways of reducing anxiety and stress, and of improving mood and self-esteem.…”