| Methods |
Allocation: randomised ‐ no further details.
Blindness: unknown.
Duration: 6 weeks.
Design: parallel group. |
| Participants |
Diagnosis: schizophrenia type II (CCMD‐3).
History: approx. 9 years.
N = 60.
Age: mean 35 years, SD 8.
Sex: 51 M, 9 F.
Setting: inpatients. |
| Interventions |
1. Receptive and 'participative' group music therapy (music listening, or music listening in combination with reading poems or dancing, music was chosen by the participants after an "induction" given by the therapist), 1 hour per session, 5 sessions per week (30 sessions in total). N = 30.
2. Standard care (medication only). N = 30. |
| Outcomes |
Mental state, negative symptoms: Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS; Andreasen 1982).
Not used: Prolactin levels (biomarker for mood: high = good). |
| Notes |
Music therapy was conducted by musicians. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Random sequence generation (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
No details given. |
| Allocation concealment (selection bias) |
Unclear risk |
No details given. |
| Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
Due to the nature of the intervention it was not possible to blind those who received music therapy or those who delivered it. |
| Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
No details given. |
| Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias)
All outcomes |
Unclear risk |
No information about how many participants have completed the study can be found in the results or discussion part of the article. According to the study design (only inpatients) and Chinese reporting standards (people leaving early are usually reported if there are any) we assume that all participants have completed the study. |
| Selective reporting (reporting bias) |
Unclear risk |
No study protocol available. All outcome measures described in the study were considered in the analysis. |
| Other bias |
Unclear risk |
Adequate music therapy method: yes.
Adequate music therapy training: unclear (music therapy was conducted by musicians who worked full time as music therapists at the hospital).
No personal, financial, or any other interests producing bias could be found. |
