Assessment of Music Experiences in Navigating Depression (AMEND) through a Tour of the Room assessment model

TL;DR

A music therapy-based assessment model improved well-being in people with depression by reducing symptoms and increasing resilience over three months.

Contribution

The study introduces a culturally relevant music therapy model for assessing and treating depression in diverse populations.

Findings

The treatment group showed reduced depressive symptoms and increased resilience after three months.

The control group did not experience similar improvements in well-being.

Music therapy offers a cost-effective and accessible tool for assessing and supporting mental health.

Abstract

A music psychotherapy-based assessment protocol was implemented to guide the treatment of vulnerable participants experiencing depression. Through the AMEND Lab, we created opportunities to support at-risk populations using relationship-centered music therapy. The current study examined whether such therapy delivered over a three-month period could improve well-being, as indexed by self-reported depressive symptoms and resilience. Our sample (n = 72, 50 women, mean age = 38 years, SD = 24 years) included children, teenagers and college students, adults whose neonates were recently in intensive care, and adults with mild cognitive impairment. Results indicated that individuals in the treatment group demonstrated decreases in depression and increases in resilience, whereas the control group showed no such improvements. These findings suggest that culturally relevant psycho-emotional characteristics expressed through live music therapy assessment may provide clinicians with an important resource when working with individuals who experience depression and diminished resilience. We hope these methods will strengthen future efforts to identify, recognize, and understand the ways in which music can support the assessment of resources which influence well-being across diverse populations. Such approaches may offer health professionals ways to integrate music as an accessible, social, cost-effective, and complementary assessment tool that will lead toward enhanced identification of issues that provide for a variety of treatment options.

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