Improving schizophrenia’s positive and negative symptoms : standard treatment versus adjunct music therapy to standard treatment

Abstract

Schizophrenia is a long-term chronic mental disorder of a type, that induce a degradation within the individual’s overall functionality that can be manifested by social withdrawal, low motivation, poor individual functionality leading to a repressive life quality. Its symptoms are categorized as “positive” or “negative.” The positive symptoms include delusions, hallucinations and inappropriate behavior, while, the negative symptoms decreases healthy feeling or other abilities such as, self-care and co-ordination. Its manifestations also include, Avolition, Anhedonia, Anergia, and Alogia. On the other hand researches showed that Music Therapy is capable of addressing a variety ofsimilar complications with the ability of promoting relaxation, coordination and collaboration between the involved therapist, diagnosed person and their loved once. Following this criteria the PICO question was chosen. Is adjacent Music therapy to standard treatment more effective than standard treatment alone in improving the negative and positive symptoms of schizophrenia?” The illness’s symptoms severity of implications perseverance afflicting the diagnosed individual, and the beneficial effect of music therapy, led researchers to explore the adjunction of music therapy as an alternative treatment, with the expectancy of improving schizophrenia’s symptoms and promoting a healthier life. The chosen targeted population was adults affected with schizophrenia. The identified intervention to be tackled was adjacent Music therapy and standard treatment while the comparison, was the use of Standard care alone. The Outcome expected were, the improvement of schizophrenia’s positive and negative symptoms. The University of Malta’s e-library databases (HyDi) was the source for the literature search, other databases used were , Ebsco (PsycInfo), Ebsco Medline, Cochrane, Google Scholar, PubMed. The literature study inclusion criteria was restricted to, adults clinically diagnosed with schizophrenia, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMMD), or International Classification of Diseases 10 (ICD 10) peer-reviewed, and in English language of professionally translated. Studies including, Down syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease, effected, child related, or trauma related complications were excluded. Additionally, seven studies were chosen, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) was used for their critical appraisal. The overall studies outcome were in favor of adjunct music therapy, but, also, findings showed that the negative symptoms were the most affected. Finally, in order to help in promoting MT, the managerial issues, educational, practice recommendations, resources and further research were subsequently addressed.