The Effects of Music Therapy on Interactions Between Family Caregivers and Their Care Receivers with Late Stage Dementia

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of music therapy programming, including singing, dancing, and rhythm playing, on participation engagement frequencies of family caregivers and their late stage dementia care receivers. During such engagement, data were taken for frequencies of initiated and responsive touch by caregivers and care receivers. Furthermore, this study assessed caregivers' perceptions of depression, burden, positive and negative affect, self-reported health, and satisfaction with visits through a pretest-posttest procedure. Fifteen couples, in which one member of the couple had late stage dementia, participated in groups for a series of 8 music therapy sessions, scheduled twice weekly for 4 weeks. All sessions were 50 minutes in duration which included 10 minutes of conversation both at the beginning and at the end. Randomly ordered between the two conversation periods were 10 minutes each of group singing, ballroom dancing, and participation in rhythm playing using paddle drums. All sessions were videotaped and later analyzed using a time interval method to determine frequencies for time intervals in each session that caregivers and their care receivers were (a) participating in music, (b) initiating touch, and (c) responding to touch. Caregivers' engagements in participations were higher in music applications when compared to conversation, and the greatest particpation occurred during rhythm playing, followed by singing and dancing, respectively. Care receivers had greatest participation during rhythm playing, followed by dancing and singing, respectively. Caregivers initiated touch more frequently than their care receivers, but care receivers were more responsive to touch than were their caregivers. Results also showed that caregivers' measures of depression, burden, positive and negative affect, and self-reported health did not change, but their increased satisfaction with visits in music therapy, as compared to visits before music therapy, was statistically significant as the .017 level of confidence.