Collaborative Songwriting Intervention for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Objectives: Given that veterans are significantly more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), depression, and anxiety than civilians, yet current gold-standard treatments for PTSD are not effective for all patients, the present study sought to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a collaborative songwriting intervention (CSI) while exploring its potential effectiveness in improving physical and mental health outcomes for veterans with PTSD. Design: Ten veterans took part in the CSI. A variety of pre-and postintervention measures were administered, including the Measurement of Current Status (MOCS), the Coping Expectancies Scale (CES), the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Military (PCL-M), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Participants also wore a Fitbit to track average heart rate, sleep, and step count. Intervention: The CSI consisted of each veteran meeting with a professional songwriter, trained specifically for co-writing original material with the veteran population. There were three phases of songwriting that took about an hour and 15 min total. Veterans were instructed to listen to their song daily for 5 weeks. Results: Participants reported that the intervention was helpful and relevant to them, and most participants (95%) would refer others to this treatment. We found that the CSI reduced participant's PTSD symptoms (d = 0.869), specifically the Numbing (d = 0.853) and Hyperarousal (d = 1.077) subscales. Depressive symptoms (d = 0.72) and stress reactivity (d = 0.785) also marginally decreased. There was no significant change in physiological data (i.e., sleep, no. of steps) from pre-to postintervention. Conclusion: These data suggest that a CSI is an acceptable intervention for veterans with PTSD that may also improve their PTSD symptoms.

Ventral tegmental area dopaminergic action in music therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: A literature review

“…. et al, 2021); songwriting treatment reduced the numbing and depressive symptoms of PTSD patients (Coulter, 2000;Precin, 2011;Hirschberg et al, 2020), and playing musical instruments, such as drums or guitars, increased the sense of openness and togetherness, and facilitated non-intimidating access to traumatic memories in PTSD patients (Bensimon et al, 2008;Pezzin et al, 2018).…”

“…Different modalities of music therapies exert different effects on PTSD phenotypes aside from the cardinal symptoms. Guided imagery and music (GIM) significantly decreases the symptoms of dissociation (Maack, 2012 ; Story and Beck, 2017 ); GIM in the trauma-focused group of patients enhanced PTSD patients' quality of life and wellbeing (Rudstam et al, 2017 ; Beck et al, 2021 ); songwriting treatment reduced the numbing and depressive symptoms of PTSD patients (Coulter, 2000 ; Precin, 2011 ; Hirschberg et al, 2020 ), and playing musical instruments, such as drums or guitars, increased the sense of openness and togetherness, and facilitated non-intimidating access to traumatic memories in PTSD patients (Bensimon et al, 2008 ; Pezzin et al, 2018 ).…”

Eficacia de los programas de musicoterapia: un metanálisis cualitativo

“…Por último, 8 programas se evalúan mediante una metodología mixta (16%). La mayoría de ellos, 6 programas (75%) presentan un método cuantitativo a través de cuestionario con un diseño pretest-postest y como técnica cualitativa la entrevista (Calo et al, 2020;Gulliver et al, 2019;Hirschberg et al, 2020;Low et al, 2020;Riggins & McLennon, 2020;Uhlig et al, 2016).…”

“…Esta patología se trata en 4 programas (8%). La sintomatología tratada es el trastorno de estrés postraumático y síntomas depresivos (Hirschberg et al, 2020); la ansiedad (Kishida et al, 2019) y el dolor (Lin et al, 2020;Low et al, 2020;Mandel et al, 2019). En el análisis se han encontrado mejoras en los pacientes a través de la creación de composiciones y creaciones propias reduciendo el estrés, la depresión y la ansiedad (Hirschberg et al, 2020;Windle et al, 2020).…”

Efficacy and acceptability of music therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

“…Over the past decade, music therapy has emerged as an alternative and less linguistically intensive treatment modality for individuals suffering from PTSD. Empirical research has demonstrated its promising efficacy and favourable feasibility in alleviating PTSD symptoms as well as comorbid depressive, anxiety, and insomnia symptoms in individuals with PTSD (Blanaru et al, 2012 ; Hirschberg et al, 2020 ; Landis-Shack et al, 2017 ; Lee et al, 2018 ; Macfarlane et al, 2019 ; Ophir & Jacoby, 2020 ). Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the majority of existing studies exploring the efficacy of music therapy primarily consist of single-arm clinical trials or qualitative studies.…”