People with dementia experience increasing symptoms such as reduced cognitive skills and memory, and changes in behaviour and mood. Depression and depressive symptoms are a common problem in people with dementia. Music interventions are promising treatments and are preferred over psychotropic drugs, which are known for limited efficacy and risk of side effects.
Naomi Rasing’s dissertation was executed in the context of the international Music Intervention for Dementia and Depression in ELderly care (MIDDEL) trial, with each chapter relating to the evaluation and implementation of music interventions for people with dementia in elderly care.
The first part of the thesis describes a protocol for a study and its results aimed at measuring the impact of music on short- and longer-term physiological stress through the repeated collection of hair and saliva samples in MIDDEL participants in Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. Results show that short-term stress changed before and after group music therapy, recreational choir singing and reading sessions in the control group, although no significant differences were observed between the different groups.
The second part of the thesis focuses on implementation of music interventions in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Türkiye and the United Kingdom by means of a process evaluation survey. The survey identifies barriers and facilitators for implementation, assesses group music therapy delivery and treatment fidelity based on video-recorded sessions. Furthermore, it assesses the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of group music therapy in the Netherlands.
