Group music therapy impacts mood states of adolescents in a psychiatric hospital setting

A formative evaluation of 'Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resiliency' with Hispanic adolescents prior to and during Covid-19

Youth living in poverty are more likely to experience cumulative stressors including multiple adverse childhood events. Further, the Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionality affected Hispanic youth and communities, leading to unprecedented levels of trauma. This research responded to a need for a youth resiliency-building program in an urban and impoverished area with a majority Hispanic population. We conducted a formative evaluation of a youth intervention entitled Mind Matters: Overcoming Adversity and Building Resilience, which aims to help youth overcome adversity and to build resilience via psychoeducation and skill development. Just prior to the pandemic in the United States (August-December, 2019), youth (N=12) participated in Mind Matters as part of an after-school program. Immediately following, we utilized focus groups to solicit youth's perspectives on the acceptability of the program, what they had learned, content areas they liked best, and their recommendations for program improvement. Follow-up phone interviews were also conducted three months later (March 2020) while youth were at home as a result of the pandemic. Youth enjoyed the program and were able to apply skills learned to cope with stress in their daily lives and across ecological contexts. Findings point to the program as particularly well-suited to older adolescents. During the pandemic, most youth continued to utilize self-soothing and mindfulness skills to emotionally self-regulate while facing challenges related to home schooling. Findings highlight the importance of trauma-resiliency programming for youth and offer recommendations to practitioners utilizing the Mind Matters program.

Music interventions with children, adolescents and emerging adults in mental health settings: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Music is increasingly used with youths in health and psychosocial interventions. We conducted a scoping review with the aim to provide an overview of the current available evidence on music intervention for youth in mental health settings, to inform practice and further research.

METHODS

Three databases (PsycINFO, PubMed and CINAHL) were surveyed. Using the PRISMA review method, 23 studies met inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Young people aged from 4 to 25 years old with various mental health conditions participated in music interventions. Music therapy was the most investigated (71%). Improving social skills was the most frequent therapeutic aim addressed. Music interventions are mostly appreciated by the participants, but it is difficult to make conclusions about their effectiveness because of the heterogeneity of research designs and the limited current state of research.

CONCLUSION

Music interventions appear to represent a promising complementary approach to usual psychiatric care, but further standardised research is necessary to continue investigating their therapeutic effects.

A Systematic Review of Music-Based Interventions to Improve Treatment Engagement and Mental Health Outcomes for Adolescents and Young Adults

Mental health disorders and suicidality are rising among adolescents and young adults (A-YA) while rates of treatment engagement remain notoriously low. Emerging research supports the potential of music-based interventions to improve mental health, but their efficacy remains unclear for A-YA. This systematic review evaluates the evidence on music-based psychosocial interventions to improve engagement in treatment and/or mental health outcomes among A-YA. This review was prospectively registered with PROSPERO and followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Twenty-six studies were extracted. There was heterogeneity of designs, populations, measures, and outcomes. A typology of music-based interventions emerged, which is characterized by combinations of three broad categories: 1) Somatosensory, 2) Social-Emotional, and 3) Cognitive-Reflective. Most interventions are Socio-Cognitive and Holistically Integrated (combines all three) followed by Socio-Somatic. All interventions involved Social-Emotional processes. Results indicate that most studies report significant effects for mental health outcomes related to social and emotional improvements and reductions of internalizing symptoms for adolescents. Few studies targeted young adults and effects on engagement were rarely measured. There is a need for more studies that use rigorous methods. This review illuminated a need for interventions that are developmentally and culturally tailored to subgroups. Finally, the field is ripe from more studies that apply experimental therapeutics to conceptualize, operationalize, and test mechanisms of change to improve the understanding of how and for whom music-based interventions work. Recommendations for embedding these innovative strategies into research and practice for A-YA are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10560-022-00893-x.

A Systematic Review of Prevention and Intervention Strategies for Smartphone Addiction in Students: Applicability During the COVID-19 Pandemic

"During this coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, smartphones play an important role in online classes, study, and entertainment. However, excessive use may lead to smartphone addiction (SPA). The incidence of SPA among students has increased with the spread of COVID-19 and threatens to impair home-based students’ learning efficiency and physical and mental health. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the latest achievements in SPA prevention and treatment, and a theoretical basis for future experimental research and clinical treatment, while considering their applicability during the current pandemic. We researched the core literature in Chinese, English, and Korean databases from 2000 to 2021; 3208 articles were identified. After reading the titles, abstracts, and full texts, 53 articles were selected. Research on SPA interventions was relatively limited; we identified six types of prevention and treatment measures: psychotherapies, cognitive training, behavioral intervention, application restriction, social intervention, and complementary and alternative medicine. They can be implemented by students, parents, or online experts. Future research should focus on developing early measures to identify and prevent SPA and enhance students’ change motivation."

Creative Arts Therapy as a Potential Intervention to Prevent Burnout and Build Resilience in Health Care Professionals

The delivery of health care is undergoing a rapid evolution that is dramatically changing the way health care professionals perform their job responsibilities. In this increasingly stressful work environment, professionals are experiencing alarming rates of burnout. Recent efforts to enhance wellness have been directed toward organizations. However, because of the nature of the work performed in intensive care units, interventions to develop individual resilience are also needed. Currently, medical centers are environments in which the emotional impact of work-related trauma is often minimized and rarely processed. Some individuals may struggle to describe or express the impact of those traumas. Through nonverbal interventions, creative arts therapy can help people access, explore, and share authentic emotion in visual, musical, physical, or written form. By reconstructing meaning through transformative methods, participants may confront, reflect, and better cope with traumatic experiences while catalyzing social support networks and deepening relational bonds in the workplace.

Patient Reflections on Individual Music Therapy for a Major Depressive Disorder or Acute Phase Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder

Reflections of patients have not been studied qualitatively after a completed course of individual music therapy for a major depressive disorder (MDD) or an acute phase of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder (SSD). Our interpretivist study explored patient reflections through individual interviews with 15 hospitalized patients after a completed course of eight individual music therapy sessions that were flexibly structured in blended fashion utilizing a set of active and receptive music therapy methods. Our analyses yielded 8 themes, supported by 23 subthemes. These themes were grouped into three domains, capturing respectively participants' praise for music therapy, the distress from which change emerged, and various perceived gains. Participants cast the perceived gains from music therapy in the wake of their distress. The domain of distress comprised two themes: distress before and during therapy, and a process of opening up and dealing with old wounds. The themes expressing their gains were: new perspectives, growing strong, emotional fulfillment, becoming socially closer and more adept, and becoming liberated and creatively inspired. These client perspectives on a completed course of music therapy augment the evidence base established in clinician terms of what matters as a potential gain from music therapy. These perspectives, furthermore, inform on the gains and the distress from which gains emerged, congruent with a strengths-oriented therapeutic pursuit in music therapy for an MDD or an acute phase of SSD. Music therapists in similar settings may draw on these perspectives in the planning and strengthening of a course of music therapy.

Effects of group singing versus group music listening on hospitalized children and adolescents with mental disorders: A pilot study

Background

There is an emerging view that music-related interventions (MuRI) may play an important role for youth with mental disorders. Here, we assessed the potential neuroendocrine (cortisol), immune (IgA) and psychological (mood state, health-related quality of life (HRQOL), well-being) efficacy of a brief program of MuRI (group singing versus group music listening) in children and adolescents with mental disorders in a clinical setting.

Methods

We performed this observational pilot study with 17 patients (aged 11-18; 11 female) admitted to the Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry/PMU Salzburg, Austria between March 2015 and April 2016. Patients participated in either a singing program or a music listening program, delivered through five daily, consecutive 45-minute sessions in one week.

Outcomes

Saliva samples for cortisol and IgA, and subjective measures of mood were taken daily, pre- and post-MuRI. HRQOL and well-being were measured pre- and post-5-day-program of MuRI. The program in singing led to a significantly larger mean drop in cortisol than in music listening (mean difference: -0·32; 95% CI -0·57 to -0·07), while listening led to a significantly higher mean positive change in the dimension calmness (mean difference: -2·66, 95%CI -4·99 to -0·33) than singing. Moreover, singing was associated with an improvement in HRQOL, and listening with an improvement in well-being.

Interpretation

Our preliminary findings suggest that MuRI may provide benefits for children and adolescents with mental disorders. The differences in psychobiological responses to singing and music listening invite further investigations. A larger, suitably powered study is now needed to provide a precise estimate of the effects of MuRI for mental health promotion, both on psychological and biological experiences. Funding: Salzburg Festival, Austria, and Focus Area 'Science and Art', Salzburg, Austria.

Effects of music therapy and music-based interventions in the treatment of substance use disorders: A systematic review

Music therapy (MT) and music-based interventions (MBIs) are increasingly used for the treatment of substance use disorders (SUD). Previous reviews on the efficacy of MT emphasized the dearth of research evidence for this topic, although various positive effects were identified. Therefore, we conducted a systematic search on published articles examining effects of music, MT and MBIs and found 34 quantitative and six qualitative studies. There was a clear increase in the number of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) during the past few years. We had planned for a meta-analysis, but due to the diversity of the quantitative studies, effect sizes were not computed. Beneficial effects of MT/ MBI on emotional and motivational outcomes, participation, locus of control, and perceived helpfulness were reported, but results were inconsistent across studies. Furthermore, many RCTs focused on effects of single sessions. No published longitudinal trials could be found. The analysis of the qualitative studies revealed four themes: emotional expression, group interaction, development of skills, and improvement of quality of life. Considering these issues for quantitative research, there is a need to examine social and health variables in future studies. In conclusion, due to the heterogeneity of the studies, the efficacy of MT/ MBI in SUD treatment still remains unclear.