Date of Award

1999

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Roger Mooney

Second Advisor

Paul Wiese

Third Advisor

Michael McDaniel

Fourth Advisor

Stephen O’Keefe

Abstract

Music therapy was implemented as an affordable and accesible intervention for the hospitalized elderly diagnosed with dementia to reduce depression. Thirty hospitalized, elderly individuals diagnosed with dementia were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. The experimental group were involved in six one-half hour music therapy sessions over a three week period. Music was selected according to group preference. No intervention was provided to the control group. The Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to measure depression. The instrument was administered orally to both groups one week prior to treatment, within two days after treatment had been completed, and two weeks after treatment had been completed. The results of the one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) did not demonstrate a significant difference between (F=.789, p=2.78 ) or within groups (F=,393 , p=3.22 ). The potential of music therapy with depressed elders with dementia is discussed.

Subject(s)

Music therapy for older people.

Dementia.

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