Effects of educational music therapy on illness management knowledge and mood state in acute psychiatric inpatients: a randomized three group effectiveness study

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of educational music therapy on illness management knowledge and mood in acute care psychiatric inpatients. A secondary purpose was to determine if there were between-intervention differences in songwriting and lyric analysis conditions. Participants (N = 98) were randomly assigned by cluster to one of three single-session group-based scripted conditions: educational lyric analysis, educational songwriting, or wait-list control. Results indicated significant between-group differences in the illness management knowledge measure in the songwriting and wait-list control conditions as well as in the vigor subscale measure in the lyric analysis and wait-list control conditions. Although not significant, both educational music therapy conditions tended to have slightly more positive mean scores than the wait-list control condition in measures of illness management knowledge, depression, vigor, confusion, tension, and fatigue. Single-session educational music therapy may be an engaging and motivating psychosocial treatment technique to improve illness management knowledge and mood in acute care psychiatric inpatients. This is the first randomized study to compare educational music therapy interventions and additional research is warranted to better understand idiosyncratic patient preferences and effects of various music therapy interventions. Implications for clinical practice, limitations, and suggestions for future research are provided.