Development of the Music Therapy Assessment Tool for Advanced Huntington’s Disease: A Pilot Validation Study

Abstract

Preliminary data indicate that the MATA-HD is a promising tool for measuring patient responses to music therapy interventions across psychological, physical, social, and communication domains of functioning in patients with advanced HD.

Therapeutic Use of Music, Dance, and Rhythmic Auditory Cueing for Patients with Huntington’s Disease: A Systematic Review

“…However, few studies have examined MT, DMT, or rhythmic auditory cueing in clinical practices specific to HD, rendering us unable to define potential therapeutic outcomes associated with art-based rehabilitation in patients with HD. In the past decade, there has been a slight increase in the number of HD studies investigating MT protocol proposals [50], MT assessment tools [51], clinicians' experiences of MT [52][53][54], and music perception abilities [55]. But yet, there lacks a greater focus on MT/DMT outcomes for persons with HD in comparison to other neurodegenerative diseases.…”

The Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT‐SAS): Validation of a new tool for music therapy process evaluation

“…Limitations of the described tools emerged from the previous analysis of literature that points out the lack of validated observational instruments to consistently evaluate the MT process. In fact, although some instruments measure cognitive, sensory, or motor variables (Jeong & Lesiuk, 2011;Lipe, 1995;Lipe et al, 2007;Magee, 2007;Magee et al, 2013Magee et al, , 2015Magee et al, , 2016O'Kelly & Bodak, 2016;Sutton, 1984), most of them evaluate client's aptitude in terms of communication, social behaviour, musical expression, or engagement in musical activity (Bell et al, 2014;Clair et al, 2005;Layman et al, 2002;McDermott et al, 2014McDermott et al, , 2015O'Kelly & Bodak, 2016;von Moreau, 1996;von Moreau et al, 2010;Wasserman et al, 1973). Only one tool takes into account behaviours indicating the client-therapist relationship in improvisational MT (Mahoney, 2010;Nordoff & Robbins, 1977).…”

“…The authors believe that even if it was not developed for a specific MT approach, it may be more useful for active models. O'Kelly and Bodak () proposed the Music Therapy Assessment Tool for Advanced Huntington Disease to provide an initial assessment and outcome measure for adults with advanced Huntington's disease. This tool evaluates mood, communication, cognition, social behaviour, arousal, and attention through the client's observation during standardized musical activities aimed at encouraging cognitive, motor, and social activities.…”

Music Therapy Assessment for Older Adults: Descriptive Mixed-Methods Study

“…There are still relatively few standardized assessment tools within the field of music therapy and those developed are often directed towards a specific diagnosis or population [8]. The American Music Therapy Association's (AMTA) Standards of Clinical Practice [9] considers assessment a fundamental component in providing music therapy treatment [6,10].…”