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Music Therapy in Schizophrenia
Abstract
In Finland about 50% of patients in mental hospitals suffer from schizophrenia. In about 30% of cases the disease will be chronic. That is why it is important and necessary to try to concentrate on preventive work, and intensify the treatment as well as activate chronic patients. Nowadays it has been noticed that music can have positive effect at all stages of schizophrenia.
There has been a shift in the perception of psychological interventions in the treatment of adults with mental health conditions. These interventions are now recognized as a crucial component of a comprehensive treatment approach. Music therapy is a healthcare profession with tremendous breadth. As defined by the American Music Therapy Association, music therapy is the clinical use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. This chapter first provides readers with a brief overview of the music therapy profession for non–music therapist readers by focusing on the breadth of the field, as well as the education and clinical training for those in the profession. The chapter then describes of the development of the music therapy profession and different types of mental health settings so readers will have context for the following chapters. Designed for both administrators and music therapists, the chapter also includes ways to fund music therapy in adult mental health settings.
Seventy-six in-patients who had the residual subtype of schizophrenia were randomly assigned to a treatment group or a control group. Both groups received standard medication as prescribed by their treating physicians, but the treatment group also received a one-month course of music therapy that included both passive listening to music and active participation in the singing of popular songs with other patients. Outcome was evaluated by four nurses using Chinese versions of the Scale for Assessment of Negative Symptoms and the in-patient version of the World Health Organization's Disability Assessment Scale. Music therapy significantly diminished patients' negative symptoms, increased their ability to converse with others, reduced their social isolation, and increased their level of interest in external events. As music therapy has no side-effects and is relatively inexpensive, it merits further evaluation and wider application.
Previous research has yielded an inconclusive picture of the effects of music on motor performance. Using a 3-factor within-subjects design [mellow/4:4 time), frenetic/(2:8 time), and white noise music conditions], each of 19 schizophrenic inpatient volunteers performed a Purdue Pegboard and Finger Oscillation (Tapping) Test following 1-min. presentations of 3 types of music. Pegboard performance was higher after frenetic music but unaffected by mellow music; there was no effect on tapping.
Effects of musical selections on motor performance have been inconsistent. Using a 3-factor within-subjects design [mellow music (4:4 time), frenetic music (2:8 time), and white noise conditions], each of 34 schizophrenic inpatients volunteered to perform the Purdue Pegboard and Finger Oscillation (Tapping) following 1-min. counterbalanced presentations of three types of music. Both pegboard and tapping performance were higher after frenetic music but unaffected by mellow music.
This chapter discusses the use of musical therapy in the field of psychiatry and neurology. Music therapy attained its proper significance in the work of Orpheus, a Thracian man of genius. This native of the Rhodopian mountains praised the cosmic harmony, which ought to illuminate man's mental life, to the accompaniment of a golden lyre. The belief in the curative power of music persisted in advanced civilizations of antiquity until the Renaissance. Miraculous effects were ascribed to it not only in cases of neurosis and psychosis but also in organic bodily disease. It was believed to cure sick people, resuscitate the dead, and bring an end to psychotic epidemics such as tarantism and contagious ones. When appropriately applied, it was claimed to have the property of preventing individual crimes and mob riots. This chapter also provides an overview of the different varieties of music therapy—namely, background, contemplative, combined, performing, and creative musical therapy.
Uberlegungen zur musiktherapeutischen Praxis bei schizophrenen Psychosen
- J Kneutgen
Musiktherapie-Möglichkeiten in der sozialen Psychiatrie
- H Willms
Breaking through with music
- C Hazard