Effects of a music‐creation programme on the anxiety, self‐esteem, and quality of life of people with severe mental illness: A quasi‐experimental design

Abstract

Many studies have shown that music therapy improves patients' symptoms. However, interventions using music creation as their core await further development for patients with severe mental illness (SMI). The current study investigated the effect of a music-creation programme on the anxiety, self-esteem, and quality of life of patients with SMI. A quasi-experimental design using convenience sampling was adopted to recruit patients with SMI from a psychiatric day care centre. Participants were grouped based on their willingness to undergo an intervention (26 patients in the experimental group and 23 patients in the control group). The control groups participated in conventional mental rehabilitation therapy activities. The experimental group participated in a music-creation session for 90 min every week over a 32-week period. The outcome indicators before and after the intervention were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). Finally, the intervention effect was determined using generalized estimating equations (GEEs). After 32 weeks of intervention activities, the experimental group showed significant improvements in their HAM-A total scores (P < 0.001) and RSES total scores (P = 0.005). Regarding quality of life, the improvements of the experimental group in terms of the psychological (P = 0.016) and social relationship domains (P = 0.033) were superior to those of the control group. Music-creation programmes are recommended for inclusion in the routine rehabilitation activities of patients with SMI.

Usefulness of Recovery services promoting personal recovery among Adults living with Severe Mental illness – A Comprehensive Integrative Review

“…The Integrated recovery service model are mostly incorporated into conventional services and aim to achieve a holistic mental health services. The review ndings encourage service providers to integrate mindfulness practices, active leisure, music therapy and spiritual healing practices as part of the integrated recovery service model (27,37,45). The inclusion of such components not only ameliorate the symptoms but are also useful in achieving a sense of agency and autonomy, taking personal responsibility and getting on with life (10).…”

“…For instance, past study regarding integrated recovery model was enhanced with mindfulness group therapy sessions which were run for 60 minutes throughout 26 weeks (45) (see Table 4). Conversely, music-creation therapy used as recovery services were run for 32 weekly sessions, with a duration of 90 min for each session (27). Generally, the activities of recovery service model covers components such as cognitive behaviour therapy techniques, psychoeducation, relapse prevention, social and coping skills training (meals, guidance in activities of daily living, role-playing, hobby groups) (38,40,46), adherence support, family therapy, crisis management, household contribution and understanding medication (25,29,46).…”

“…Two studies concluded that conventional rehabilitation services can incorporate additional innovative interventions aimed to achieve recovery for consumers (27,38). For instance, Luk (38) recommended the inclusion of spiritual intervention (a form of hymn singing, Bible reading, personal sharing and intercessions) into the conventional rehabilitation services.…”

“…Most of the included papers suggested that recovery services have had a signi cant improvement in anxiety, psychosocial and mental symptoms of an adults with severe mental illness (25, 27-30, 33, 34, 40, 43, 45, 61). For instance, Chang, Chen (27) reported that the anxiety symptoms in an experimental group (music-creation programme) improved 6.22 points more than the control group (P < 0.001). Similarly, the mean symptoms (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale PANSS) in a clubhouse group (eg.…”

“…The papers highlighted that recovery services have improved self-esteem or self-con dence (eg. fostered feeling of self-worth) (26,30,31,38,42,52,(57)(58)(59), hope (25,27,46,56), improvements in thoughts, emotions and better understanding of mental illness (25,26,31). More so, the recovery services have improved self-care or practical skills of daily life (eg.…”