ABSTRACT

Music therapy is increasingly being used as an intervention for stress reduction in both medical and mental healthcare settings. Music therapy is characterized by personally tailored music interventions initiated by a trained and qualified music therapist, which distinguishes music therapy from other music interventions, such as ‘music medicine’, which concerns mainly music listening interventions offered by healthcare professionals. To summarize the growing body of empirical research on music therapy, a multilevel meta-analysis, containing 47 studies, 76 effect sizes and 2.747 participants, was performed to assess the strength of the effects of music therapy on both physiological and psychological stress-related outcomes, and to test potential moderators of the intervention effects. Results showed that music therapy showed an overall medium-to-large effect on stress-related outcomes (d = .723, [.51–.94]). Larger effects were found for clinical controlled trials (CCT) compared to randomized controlled trials (RCT), waiting list controls instead of care as usual (CAU) or other stress-reducing interventions, and for studies conducted in Non-Western countries compared to Western countries. Implications for both music therapy and future research are discussed.

摘要

音乐疗法越来越多地被用作医疗和精神保健环境中减轻压力的干预措施。音乐疗法的特点是由训练有素且合格的音乐治疗师发起的个人定制音乐干预，这将音乐疗法与其他音乐干预区分开来，例如“音乐医学”，主要涉及医疗保健专业人员提供的音乐聆听干预。为了总结越来越多的关于音乐疗法的实证研究，我们进行了一项包含 47 项研究、76 个效应量和 2.747 名参与者的多层次荟萃分析，以评估音乐疗法对生理和心理压力相关结果的影响强度，并测试干预效果的潜在调节因素。d = .723，[.51–.94]）。与随机对照试验 (RCT)、等候名单对照而非照常护理 (CAU) 或其他减轻压力的干预措施相比，临床对照试验 (CCT) 以及在非西方国家进行的研究与西方国家进行的研究相比，发现效果更大国家。讨论了对音乐疗法和未来研究的影响。