Review of Randomised Controlled Trials on the Effect of Music Therapy on Autism

Abstract

Autism is a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder, is characterized by behavioural deficits in social behaviour, social communication, and interfered repetitive behavior. In recent years, due to the increased morbidity of autism, research focusing on the therapies of autistic people raises public concern and gains the attention of researchers in related fields. Music therapy has the strengths of high convenience and low costs and therefore becomes prevalent in recent years. However, considering the different study design, and diverse backgrounds of participants in existing studies, there is no conclusive results on the effects of music therapy on autism. This article mainly reviewed existing randomized controlled trials which investigated the association between music therapy and autism and found that there is supportive evidence of the protective effects of music therapy on autism. However, due to diverse participants’ backgrounds, limited sample size, and various study designs in existing studies, more research is needed. Therefore, future research is recommended conduct to explore different forms of music therapy and its effects on autistic people with various demographic characteristics.