Music Therapy for Depression

Music therapy provides short‐term beneficial effects for people with depression and is associated with improvements in mood (Maratos, Gold, Wang, & Crawford, 2008; Aalbers et al., 2017). In particular, individual music therapy combined with standard care (i.e. medication, counselling, and psychotherapy) is found to be effective for depression among working-age people with depression, by enabling meaningful non-verbal expression and interaction where words fail (Erkkilä et al., 2011). Active engagement in the music experiences offered by the music therapist allowed for issues associated with depression to be dealt with meaningfully; catharsis was sometimes experienced and reported by clients. In addition, the ability to recognise or describe one’s emotions was improved in months after music therapy had ended (Erkkilä et al., 2011).

As for stroke patients, the most common complication is depression, as up to 40% may suffer from post-stroke depression (Raglio et al., 2017). Music therapy alleviates negative moods in stroke patients. The improvement in mood has great implications for recovery, as it increases the patient’s motivation and treatment compliance (with other therapies). Further downstream, this leads to improved quality of life and improved self-esteem (Raglio et al., 2017). Many times, I have witnessed how an improvement in mood in my former stroke patients led to gains in other therapies. This observation was corroborated by my trusted physiotherapy and speech therapy colleagues on the stroke rehab wards. As for depressed older adults with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, music therapy led to significant improvements in anxiety and depression, and this positive effect was sustained for weeks after sessions were discontinued (Guetin et al., 2009).