AUTHOR=Silverman Michael J. 

TITLE=Effects of Educational Music Therapy on State Hope for Recovery in Acute Care Mental Health Inpatients: A Cluster-Randomized Effectiveness Study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01569

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01569

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> There has been an increasing emphasis on recovery as the expectation for people with mental health disorders.</p><p><bold>Purpose:</bold> The purpose of this effectiveness study is to determine if group-based educational music therapy can immediately impact state hope for recovery in acute care mental health patients. Research questions included: will acute care mental health inpatients who participate in a single music therapy session have higher agency and pathway aspects of state hope for recovery than patients in a control condition? Will there be differences in state hope for recovery as a result of hope-oriented songwriting or lyric analysis interventions?</p><p><bold>Method:</bold> Participants (<italic>N</italic> = 169) were cluster randomized to one of three single-session conditions: lyric analysis, songwriting, or wait-list control.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> There was no significant between-group difference. However, both music therapy conditions tended to have slightly higher mean pathway, agency, and total state hope scores than the control condition even within the temporal parameters of a single music therapy session. There was no between-group difference in the songwriting and lyric analysis interventions.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> Although not significant, results support that educational music therapy may impact state hope for recovery within the temporal parameters of a single session. The specific type of educational music therapy intervention did not affect results. Implications for practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.</p>