Viggo Krüger

Dose–response relationship in music therapy for people with serious mental disorders: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Serious mental disorders have considerable individual and societal impact, and traditional treatments may show limited effects. Music therapy may be beneficial in psychosis and depression, including treatment-resistant cases. The aim of this review was to examine the benefits of music therapy for people with serious mental disorders. All existing prospective studies were combined using mixed-effects meta-analysis models, allowing to examine the influence of study design (RCT vs. CCT vs. pre-post study), type of disorder (psychotic vs. non-psychotic), and number of sessions. Results showed that music therapy, when added to standard care, has strong and significant effects on global state, general symptoms, negative symptoms, depression, anxiety, functioning, and musical engagement. Significant dose-effect relationships were identified for general, negative, and depressive symptoms, as well as functioning, with explained variance ranging from 73% to 78%. Small effect sizes for these outcomes are achieved after 3 to 10, large effects after 16 to 51 sessions. The findings suggest that music therapy is an effective treatment which helps people with psychotic and non-psychotic severe mental disorders to improve global state, symptoms, and functioning. Slight improvements can be seen with a few therapy sessions, but longer courses or more frequent sessions are needed to achieve more substantial benefits.

Between rights and realities – music as a structuring resource in child welfare everyday life: a qualitative study

How is music related to adolescent agency and possibilities for various forms of participation in everyday life? This article is based on interviews of 15 adolescents with experiences of their everyday life in the Norwegian child welfare system. The participants were between the ages of 18 and 23 years, and they have all been living in a child welfare institution. They have also been participants in a community music therapy project, with activities such as playing in a band and writing songs. In this article, we focus on the aspects of these adolescents’ experiences of their everyday situation in child welfare and on how they use music as a resource. We analyse and discuss our empirical findings from two theoretical perspectives – a human rights perspective and a sociocultural perspective. The human rights discussion is related to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), in particular with regard to the concept of participation. The sociocultural perspective highlights conditions that enable participation. The findings suggest that experiences of stigma and lack of constructive dialogue with adults are central to their everyday life experience in child welfare aftercare. Participants in the study were able to use music to structure stories and facilitate dialogue with peers and adults. We discuss these findings in the light of contemporary theories on resources for agency and participation.

The Use of Information Technology in Music Therapy

This paper describes the use of the IT medium in my work as a music therapist. It focuses on the benefits of this technology as a means of organising and structuring the education of individuals suffering from social and emotional problems. I illuminate the music therapy process by using concepts that are not “therapeutical”, like hyperinstrument, and argue that music therapy needs technological concepts to describe some of the processes in music therapy including IT. The casestory about Robert is a synopsis of my work with a boy in a contemporary school. The process he went through using IT in music therapy is illuminating to some of the aspects, which I think is basic to the idea of IT in music therapy. I also try to point out benefits and draw backs that I have experienced when using IT in music therapy.