Music Therapy Intervention and Bio-psychological Effects Evaluation Among Chronic Psychiatric Inpatients in Rehabilitation Wards of a Community Teaching Hospital

Music therapy is gradually being used in the field of psychiatry, such as depression, anxiety, and development disorders in children. However, music therapy still lacks systematic research on chronic mental illness. Since negative symptoms are an important factor in preventing patients from returning to the community, we aim to assess the effect of music therapy on negative symptoms through this study. Additionally, Taiwan as many Asian countries have not yet established a certification system for music therapy. This study cooperates with licensed therapists abroad in the hope of promoting the systematic development of local music therapy in the future.

Participants of integrated music therapy (Group 1, integration of active and passive music therapy) includes instrument playing, singing, lyrics modification/music organized play, listening to music and discussing each treatment process. The four stages of activities are warm-up, main activities, secondary activities, and the ending section. The participants of the music listening group (Group 2, background music listening), music selection based on the musical preference and background of subjects, for relax or boost the spirit of the subjects. Participants in the control group (Group 3) receive their regular occupational therapy during the experimental period. We plan to recruit 100 people in the wards: 40/20/40 (Group 1/2/3) under random assignment.

To evaluate the effects of three groups, we measure their psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, social and interactive skills, and the differences in the physiological signals produced by skin, muscles, and heart assisted by a medical engineering scholar before, after, and two months after the music therapy.