Effectiveness of music therapy on improving treatment motivation and emotion in female patients with methamphetamine use disorder: A randomized controlled trial

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate whether Group Music Therapy (GMT) could enhance the treatment motivation and change the negative emotion among female patients with methamphetamine use disorder in a randomized clinical trial. Methods: Participants (N?=?60) were randomized to the group of GMT combined with treatment as usual (TAU) or the group with TAU only. Questionnaire of Motivation for Abstaining from Drugs was used to measure the motivation for abstaining from drugs of the female patients. And Self-Rating Depression Scale and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale were used to measure negative emotion of participants. The measurements were conducted at T0 (baseline), T1 (post 13 sessions of intervention) and T2 (3-month follow-up after T1) by the independent trained researcher. Results: The postintervention and 3-month follow-up results according to the intention-to-treat principle indicated that GMT?+?TAU intervention showed significantly positive group-by-time effect on the scores of the subscale-tending to rehabilitation-internal motivation (p?=?0.01) and avoiding abuse-external motivation (p?=?0.04). In 3-month follow-up, total scores of the questionnaire of motivation for abstaining from drugs (p?=?0.02), scores of avoiding abuse-internal motivation subscale (p?=?0.05), and scores of confidence of abstaining from drugs subscale (p?=?0.01) in GMT?+?TAU were also presented with significantly positive group x time effect. The changes of total score of Questionnaire of Motivation for Abstaining from Drugs (from baseline to 3-month follow-up) was significantly positive association with the changes of scores of SAS in GMT?+?TAU group (r = ?0.55, p?=?0.00). Conclusions: The present study suggests that GMT could be used as an effective treatment strategy to enhance treatment motivation of female patients with methamphetamine use disorder.