RESUMO
The purpose of this study was to investigate adult psychiatric patients' evaluation of music therapy and other aspects of their overall treatment. Twenty-seven patients hospitalized on an open psychiatric ward of Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans served as subjects. They rated music therapy, art therapy, recreation therapy, traditional therapies, and general aspects of care provided during their hospitalization with a semantic differential consisting of four adjective pairs. Results from a one-way analysis of variance showed that music therapy was rated significantly higher than art and recreation therapy on the pleasurable/painful scale, but no significant differences were found among the activity therapies on the three remaining scales. Further one-way analyses of variance showed that the activity therapies taken as one aspect were rated significantly higher than several therapies on specific scales; also, they were not significantly less important or less successful than medication, which was rated highest on these two scales. The author suggests that an instrument with multiple evaluation scales may be specifically adapted to any program, and can provide information to guide music therapists in delivering valuable therapeutic services.