Findings of the present meta-analysis indicate that music therapy provides short-term beneficial effects for people with depression. Music therapy added to treatment as usual (TAU) seems to improve depressive symptoms compared with TAU alone. Additionally, music therapy plus TAU is not associated with more or fewer adverse events than TAU alone. Music therapy also shows efficacy in decreasing anxiety levels and improving functioning of depressed individuals.Future trials based on adequate design and larger samples of children and adolescents are needed to consolidate our findings. Researchers should consider investigating mechanisms of music therapy for depression. It is important to clearly describe music therapy, TAU, the comparator condition, and the profession of the person who delivers the intervention, for reproducibility and comparison purposes.

Findings from individual randomised trials suggest that music therapy is accepted by people with depression and is associated with improvements in mood. However, the small number and low methodological quality of studies mean that it is not possible to be confident about its effectiveness. High quality trials evaluating the effects of music therapy on depression are required.

A randomised trial of music therapy for in-patients with schizophrenia is feasible. The effects and cost-effectiveness of music therapy for acute psychosis should be further explored in an explanatory randomised trial.

Objectives: To evaluate he clinical effectiveness of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia and to test whether any benefits exceed those of an active control treatment.\ud Design: Three arm, rater blinded, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial.\ud Setting: Secondary care services across 15 sites in the United Kingdom.\ud Participants: 417 people aged 18 or over, who had a diagnosis of schizophrenia and provided written informed consent to take part in the study.\ud Interventions: Participants, stratified by site, were randomised to 12 months of weekly group art therapy plus standard care alone. Art therapy and activity groups had up to eight members and lasted for 90 minutes. In art therapy, members were given access to a range of art materials and encouraged to use these to express themselves freely. Members of activity groups were offered various activities that did not involve use of art or craft materials and were encouraged to collectively select those they wanted to pursue.\ud Main outcome measures: The primary outcomes were global functioning, measured using the global assessment of functioning scale, and mental health systems, measured using the positive and negative syndrome scale, 24 months after randomisation. Main secondary outcomes were levels of group attendance, social functioning, and satisfaction with care at 12 and 24 months.\ud Results: 24 participants were assigned to either art therapy (n=140), activity groups (n=140), or standard care alone (n=137). Primary outcomes between the three study arms did not differ. The adjusted mean difference between art therapy and standard care at 24 months on the global assessment of functioning scale was -0.9 (95% confidence interval -3.8 to 2.1), and on the positive and negative syndrome scale was 0.7 (-3.1 to 4.6). Secondary outcomes did not differ between those referred to art therapy or those referred to standard care at 12 or 24 months.\ud Conclusions: Referring people with established schizophrenia to group art therapy as delivered in this trial did not improve global functioning, metnal health, or other health related outcomes.\ud Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46150447

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