Researchers at the School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China have conducted an in-depth analysis of the impact of music therapy on anxiety and depression in people with dementia. More particularly, the researchers looked at existing studies on the topic: they included 19 articles involving 614 samples. They published their results in the journal Ageing and Mental Health. For anxiety in people with dementia, it was shown that the music therapy intervention had to last at least 12 weeks for there to be a significant effect. And when the music therapy session was longer, the people with dementia experienced stronger reductions in anxiety.
The analysis also showed that, with regard to their effects on depression or anxiety, less frequent music therapy interventions spread over longer periods of time were preferred over more frequent sessions over a shorter time frame. The authors concluded that music interventions can effectively reduce depression or anxiety in people with dementia. They specified that, according to their analyses, interventions of 45 minutes or more, at least once a week, were effective. They also recommended that further studies should look at the impact of music therapy on people with severe dementia. Read the full study, here:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13607863.2023.2214091
