October 1, 2012

Creative Arts Therapies Department professor Joke Bradt, PhD, gave 2 presentations at the American Music Therapy Association's national annual conference in mid-October. This year’s conference theme was “Changing Winds: Innovation in Music Therapy.” Her first presentation was about music therapy for end-of-life care and for physical and psychological outcomes in cancer patients. The second was about strategies for developing mixed methods research studies in music therapy. In addition to her 2 presentations, Bradt participated in a panel discussion titled, “Music Therapy for Pain Management: Multidimensional Evidence for a Multidimensional Phenomenon.”

Bradt was published in the Journal of Music Therapy last month. Her featured article, “Randomized Controlled Trials in Music Therapy: Guidelines for Design and Implementation,” discusses the design and implementation of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that meet methodological standards. In her article, she defines RCTs and concludes that it is possible to generate RCTs for music therapy treatment programs, despite the evident challenges presented by randomization, allocation concealment, blinding, and control. ”Music therapists are being asked by their employers, as well as the healthcare industry, to present research that supports their claims of treatment benefits. It is exciting to see the increase in music therapy research output in response to this call,” Bradt said.