The Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS): Validation of a new tool for music therapy process evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Music therapy (MT) interventions are aimed at creating and developing a relationship between patient and therapist. However, there is a lack of validated observational instruments to consistently evaluate the MT process. AIM: The purpose of this study was the validation of Music Therapy Session Assessment Scale (MT-SAS), designed to assess the relationship between therapist and patient during active MT sessions. METHODS: Videotapes of a single 30-min session per patient were considered. A pilot study on the videotapes of 10 patients was carried out to help refine the items, define the scoring system and improve inter-rater reliability among the five raters. Then, a validation study on 100 patients with different clinical conditions was carried out. The Italian MT-SAS was used throughout the process, although we also provide an English translation. RESULTS: The final scale consisted of 7 binary items accounting for eye contact, countenance, and nonverbal and sound-music communication. In the pilot study, raters were found to share an acceptable level of agreement in their assessments. Explorative factorial analysis disclosed a single homogeneous factor including 6 items (thus supporting an ordinal total score), with only the item about eye contact being unrelated to the others. Moreover, the existence of 2 different archetypal profiles of attuned and disattuned behaviours was highlighted through multiple correspondence analysis. CONCLUSIONS: As suggested by the consistent results of 2 different analyses, MT-SAS is a reliable tool that globally evaluates sonorous-musical and nonverbal behaviours related to emotional attunement and empathetic relationship between patient and therapist during active MT sessions.

Music in the workplace: A narrative literature review of intervention studies.

Background Music is widely used in clinical and rehabilitative fields and recently also in the field of Occupational Medicine. This review aims at selecting the evidence-based studies regarding music interventions in workplaces. Methods In order to carry out a narrative literature review, two independent pairs of investigators searched in PubMed and PsycInfo databases to select Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) or Clinical Controlled Trials (CCTs) in English regarding music and music therapy interventions in workplaces; the trials were published in peer-reviewed journals from January 2000 to February 2017. Results Fourteen articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in this review. Among these, ten were RCTs and four CCTs. The vast majority of RCTs were conducted on students or medical personnel (n=8), while only a few RCTs (n=2) were carried out on air traffic controllers or sick leave workers. Firefighters, computer systems developers, nursing students and office workers were studied through a CCT study design (n=4). Conclusions Psychological factors, communication, rehabilitative outcomes and cognitive and work performances seem to be the principal areas of interest in the field of music and occupational medicine, with possible economic benefits. Future studies should adopt rigorous methodological criteria to carry out larger samples on a wide range of professional categories and music/music therapy interventions.