Project team
Jorg Fachner
Professor
Addiction is a growing problem, and not only since the pandemic hit. A recent Cochrane Review identified music therapy as an effective treatment for drug craving.
However, research into the mechanisms of change, and into community settings, is missing. This pilot study examined the feasibility and efficacy of music therapy for individuals engaged with a community-based substance misuse treatment service.
This research has been conducted with our partners at v-i-a (formerly WDP).
There is a growing evidence base for use in substance use treatment. However, Community Substance Misuse Treatment Services (CSMTS) are under-represented in this literature (Ghetti et al., 2017; Hohmann et al., 2017; Megranahan & Lynskey, 2018).
CSMTS and outpatient units see a much larger number of clients across the country compared to private and residential services, and present unique challenges that are not often found in residential and private treatment centres, limiting generalisation/application of the existing evidence base.
Some of the factors that can differ between interventions in CSMTSs and private and residential treatment services include:
A lack of resources available to CSMTSs exacerbate these factors and highlight the need for effective evidence-based interventions that can aid treatment.
We worked with V-i-a's Innovation and Research Unit to design a three-arm mixed methods feasibility study to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of music therapy in a CSMTS.
The primary aim of this project is to test the feasibility of implementing individual and group music therapy as an intervention for service users experiencing depression and/or anxiety and engaged with CSMTSs.
The secondary aims of this project are to investigate therapeutic outcomes on mental health, craving and brain processing related to the type of intervention (either individual music therapy, group music therapy, or standard treatment), the features of the therapeutic relationship, and the role of music technology in the delivery, recording, and analysis of music therapy sessions.
Pasqualitto, F., Panin, F., Maidhof, C., Thompson, N. and Fachner, J. (2023) 'Neuroplastic changes in addiction memory. How music therapy and music-based intervention may reduce craving: a narrative review [Review]', Brain Sciences, 13(2), pp. 259. Available at: https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020259
Fachner, J., Maidhof, C., Murtagh, D., De Silva, D., Pasqualitto, F., Fernie, P. ... Odell-Miller, H. (2023) 'Music therapy, neural processing, and craving reduction: An RCT protocol for a mixed methods feasibility study in a Community Substance Misuse Treatment Service', Addiction Science and Clinical Practice, 18(36). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-023-00385-y
Fachner, J. (2022) 'Feasibility of Music Therapy in Community Substance Misuse Treatment Services (CRAVEMT)', ClinicalTrials.gov.
Ghetti, C., Chen, X., Brenner, A., Hakvoort, L. G., Lien, L., Fachner, J. and Gold, C. (2022) 'Music therapy for people with substance use disorders (Review)', Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 5, CD012576. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD012576.pub3
Fachner, J. (2017) 'Retraining of Drug Reward, Music Cues and State-dependent Recall in Music Therapy', Music and Medicine, 9(1), pp. 8-14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.47513/mmd.v9i1.524
Fachner, J., Erkkila, J. and Brabant, O. (2017) 'On musical identities, social pharmacology and intervention timing in music therapy'. In: Hargreaves, D., MacDonald, R. and Miell, D. (Eds.), Musical Identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 682-700.
Professor
