Research Blast! April 2012

You might have been wondering about the dearth of posts as of late. With my full time job, conference schedule and grant writing – the blog has been on the “back burner”. However, I continue to read research daily. Here is a blast of things that I think are interesting.

Chen et al. (2012) completed a RCT of persons undergoing intravitreal injections, with a measurement of the patient’s anxiety.  The treatment group listened to classical music (from Pandora Radio) before and during the procedure (5 – 15 minutes). There was a significant difference in anxiety reduction in the treatment group and a reported 73% of persons who requested music in future procedures. I do not see a mention of a music therapist in this project and it looks like music was randomly selected by the classical pandora radio station.

Chen, X., Seth, R.K., Rao, V.S., Huang, J.J., & Adelman, R.A. (2012). Effects of music therapy on intravitreal injections: A Randomized Clinical Trial. J Ocul Pharmacol Ther. PMID: 22506884

If you work in the hospital setting, you might check out this review of literature by Davis and Jones (2012)  on the use of music for ventilated patients, where 7 studies are reviewed.

Davis, T., & Jones, P. (2012). Music therapy: decreasing anxiety in the ventilated patient: a review of the literature. Dimens Crit Care Nurs., 31(3), 159-66. PMID: 22475701

Conklyn et al. (2012) published a pilot study on Modified MIT for non-fluent aphasia. This study included a RCT of 30 patients post stroke who completed a pre and post test of sections of the Western Aphasia Battery. Persons in the MMIT group showed significant differences in the posttest measures. To my knowledge, this is the first study to call the technique used in music therapy “modified” MIT.

Conklyn, D., Novak, E., Boissy, A., Bethoux, F., & Chemali, K. (2012). The Effects of Modified Melodic Intonation Therapy on Non-Fluent Aphasia-A Pilot Study. J Speech Lang Hear Res. PMID: 22411278

Kim et al. (2012) compared Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation to NDT/Bobath for gait in adults with cerebral palsy. Twenty-eight patients were randomly assigned to RAS or NDT treatment, three times a week for three weeks. RAS increased cadence, velocity, and stride length and improved measures of pelvis tilt and hip flexion. NDT showed significant improvements of improvements in rotations of the hip joint (whereas RAS aggravated this). This research is interesting since a certain treatment may be better based on the desired outcomes.

Kim, S.J., Kwak, E.E., Park, E.S., & Cho, S.R. (2012). Differential effects of rhythmic auditory stimulation and neurodevelopmental treatment/Bobath on gait patterns in adults with cerebral palsy: a randomized controlled trial. Clin Rehabil. PMID:    22308559 

Lee et al. (2012) looked at responses of a patient in “vegetative state” using passive music listening of some Mahler.  They saw increase of heart rate with music after the 14th day of the intervention. Although a really small study (meaning lack of evidence to generalize), there aren’t many studies in this area of treatment and further investigation would be interesting. This article wasn’t available in full, so I don’t know how the music was chosen – if there were preference considerations for the patient.

Lee, Y.C., Lei, C.Y., Shih, Y.S., Zhang, W.C., Wang, H.M., Tseng, C.L., Hou, M.C., Chiang, H.Y., & Huang, S.C. (2011). HRV response of vegetative state patient with music therapy. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc., 1701-4. PMID: 22254653

Hope you enjoy this quick research update!!

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Student podcast: Older Adults and Dementia

Blythe has reported on several studies in music therapy and dementia on MTRB. As an assignment for a theories and methods class, three of my students wrote scripts for this podcast. Thanks to Rachel Abbe, Brianna Larsen, and Katie Burns for participating in MTRB.

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MT for Gait in Parkinsons

Many music therapists who work with persons with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) use music for gait training and volitional movement training. A new meta-analysis was completed on music-facilitated movement in PD. Continue reading

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Research Part 2 – Statistics and Results

Part 2 of our three part series on reading and writing scholarly research in music therapy. We discuss our own reactions to stats as undergraduates, tips for increasing your stats reading IQ in journal articles, and summarize a few of the more common statistical analyses. Blythe reminds us that correlation does NOT equal causation: So sayeth Dilbert.

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Music Therapy Research, Part 1: So you wanna write scholarly-like?

MTRB issues this podcast, the first in a three part series on you, the listener, as researcher. This episode is a guide through the parts of a scholarly paper, whether you want to be a better consumer of research, are a student writing your first scholarly papers, or ready to dive in to the world of publication.

Parts two and three coming soon are “The Results Section or Remember Stats Class?” and “The Qualitative Side of Things,” respectively.

We recommend two texts: “The Practitioners Guide to Using Research for Evidence-Based Practice” by Rubin and How To Write A Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing by Silvia.

And this little number should help, too: How to Publish in Scholarly Journals

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MT for Pain in Knee Joint Lavage

Music has often been used during painful medical procedures. A new study looked at the use of music during joint lavage to see if it would effect anxiety and pain. Continue reading

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Update: Auditory Integration & Autism

MTRB reported on a Cochrane Review of AIT in August 2010. This review was recently updated – we will review current findings. Continue reading

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Virginia Darnell Driscoll – University of Iowa

Ginny is a Research Specialist at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics on the Cochlear Implant Clinical Research Team. She works with children and adults who have cochlear implants evaluating how they hear music, reporting to the companies regarding new devices and processing strategies, and providing rehabilitation via online training. During the summer,  Ginny also provides and supervises music therapy sessions for preschool children with cochlear implants to improve their sound and speech perception and production.

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Dr. Petra Kern

MTRB was pleased to record this podcast with Dr. Petra Kern, a clinician, researcher, and educator in music therapy. She is board certified in the U.S., Canada, and Germany and earned her doctorate in music therapy from the School of Medicine at the University of Witten-Herdecke. She received the 2008 national research/publications award of the American Music Therapy Association for her work with young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Dr. Kern is an active speaker and has been published in Young Exceptional Children, Young Children, Children & Families, Teaching Young Children, the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Music Therapy Today, and imagine. She is the owner of the California-Based company Music Therapy Consulting. For more details, please visit her website at www.musictherapy.biz.

Visit imagine via this QR code:

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Advocacy –> Recognition –> Access

Since 2005, the American Music Therapy Association and the Certification Board for Music Therapists have collaborated on a State Recognition Operational Plan. The primary purpose of this Plan is to get music therapy and our MT-BC credential recognized by individual states so that citizens can more easily access our services. The AMTA Government Relations staff and CBMT Regulatory Affairs staff provide guidance and technical support to state task forces throughout the country as they work towards state recognition. To date, their work has resulted in 35 active state task forces, 2 licensure bills passed in 2011, and an estimated 10 bills being filed in 2012 that seek to create either a music therapy registry or license for music therapy. This month, our focus is on YOU and on getting you excited about advocacy.

This podcast features Dr. Dena Register and Kimberly Sena Moore, who are the regulatory affairs team for CBMT.

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