Home-based music therapy - a systematic overview of settings and conditions for an innovative service in healthcare

BackgroundAlmost every Western healthcare system is changing to make their services more centered around out-patient care. In particular, long-term or geriatric patients who have been discharged from the hospital often require home-based care and therapy. Therefore, several programs have been developed to continue the therapeutic process and manage the special needs of patients after discharge from hospital. Music therapy has also moved into this field of healthcare service by providing home-based music therapy (HBMT) programs. This article reviews and summarizes the settings and conditions of HBMT for the first time.MethodsThe following databases were used to find articles on home-based music therapy: AMED, CAIRSS, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and PSYNDEX. The search terms were "home-based music therapy" and "mobile music therapy". Included articles were analyzed with respect to participants as well as conditions and settings of HBMT. Furthermore, the date of publication, main outcomes, and the design and quality of the studies were investigated.ResultsA total of 20 international publications, 11 clinical studies and nine reports from practice, mainly from the United States (n = 8), were finally included in the qualitative synthesis. Six studies had a randomized controlled design and included a total of 507 patients. The vast majority of clients of HBMT are elderly patients living at home and people who need hospice and palliative care. Although settings were heterogeneous, music listening programs played a predominant role with the aim to reduce symptoms like depression and pain, or to improve quality of life and the relationship between patients and caregivers as primary endpoints.ConclusionsWe were able to show that HBMT is an innovative service for future healthcare delivery. It fits with the changing healthcare system and its conditions but also meets the therapeutic needs of the increasing number of elderly and severely impaired people. Apart from music therapists, patients and their families HBMT is also interesting as a blueprint for home based care for other groups of caregivers.

[1]  J. Ioannidis,et al.  The PRISMA Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies That Evaluate Health Care Interventions: Explanation and Elaboration , 2009, Annals of Internal Medicine [serial online].

[2]  A. Horne-Thompson.  Expanding from Hospital to Home Based Care: Implications for Music Therapists Working in Palliative Care , 2007 .

[3]  Tricia Anderson,et al.  Music for pain relief. , 2006, The practising midwife.

[4]  S Sidani,et al.  The Therapeutic Use of Music for Dyspnea and Anxiety in Patients with COPD who Live at Home , 1999, Journal of holistic nursing : official journal of the American Holistic Nurses' Association.

[5]  J. Thayer,et al.  Receptive Music Therapy for the Treatment of Depression: A Proof-of-Concept Study and Prospective Controlled Clinical Trial of Efficacy , 2010, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.

[6]  P. Tugwell,et al.  Does the inclusion of grey literature influence estimates of intervention effectiveness reported in meta-analyses? , 2000, The Lancet.

[7]  T. Ostermann,et al.  Auditive stimulation therapy as an intervention in subacute and chronic tinnitus: a prospective observational study. , 2005, The international tinnitus journal.

[8]  S. Siedlecki.  The Effect of Music on Power, Pain, Depression, and Disability: A Clinical Trial , 2005 .

[9]  C. Emery,et al.  Short-term effects of exercise and music on cognitive performance among participants in a cardiac rehabilitation program. , 2003, Heart & lung : the journal of critical care.

[10]  E. G. Waldon.  The effects of group music therapy on mood states and cohesiveness in adult oncology patients. , 2001, Journal of music therapy.

[11]  R. Hilliard,et al.  The effects of music therapy on the quality and length of life of people diagnosed with terminal cancer. , 2003, Journal of music therapy.

[12]  Alex Jadad,et al.  The Internet and evidence-based decision-making: a needed synergy for efficient knowledge management in health care , 2000, CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne.

[13]  Varvara Pasiali,et al.  The Use of Prescriptive Therapeutic Songs in a Home-Based Environment to Promote Social Skills Acquisition by Children with Autism: Three Case Studies , 2004 .

[14]  Jenny Chiang.  Music Therapy for Young Children Who Have Special Needs: the Music Therapy Experience from the Perspectives of Carers and Professionals , 2010 .

[15]  M. Roberts.  'I Want to Play and Sing My Story': Home-based Songwriting for Bereaved Children and Adolescents , 2006 .

[16]  T. Ostermann,et al.  Music therapy in the treatment of multiple sclerosis: a comprehensive literature review , 2006, Expert review of neurotherapeutics.

[17]  L. Frölich,et al.  [Creative therapy options for patients with dementia--a systematic review]. , 2007, Fortschritte der Neurologie-Psychiatrie.

[18]  S. Hanser.  A Music Therapy Strategy for Depressed Older Adults in the Community , 1990 .

[19]  P. Horden.  Music as medicine : the history of music therapy since antiquity , 2000 .

[20]  C. Gold,et al.  Music therapy for schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like illnesses. , 2005, The Cochrane database of systematic reviews.

[21]  L. Thompson,et al.  Effects of a music therapy strategy on depressed older adults. , 1994, Journal of Gerontology.

[22]  Salit Kark,et al.  A dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy , 2000 .

[23]  Michael J. Silverman.  The influence of music on the symptoms of psychosis: a meta-analysis. , 2003, Journal of music therapy.

[24]  Nikolay N. Mirenkov,et al.  Mobile Music Therapy with Multimedia Quality of Life Supporters for Elderly and Disabled , 2009, J. Mobile Multimedia.

[25]  M. Secic,et al.  Effects of music therapy on health-related outcomes in cardiac rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial. , 2007, Journal of music therapy.