What do we Know about Music Therapy?

Aim: In this study, we aimed to investigate the knowledge of people about musicotherapy, the methods they use to deal with stress, the kind of music they listen and the relationship between musicotherapy and socioeconomic features. Methods: This cross-sectional study is conducted in Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital and Istanbul Medeniyet University Göztepe Training and Research Hospital between November 2011 and January 2012. One hundred two volunteers, in different socioeconomic and education status, working in these hospitals were included the study. The data (socioeconomic, sociocultural status, knowledge about musicotherapy and subquestions) were collected with a questionnaire. SPSS for Windows 19.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: In 102 volunteers (68 females, 34 males) 60 people (58.8%) were university graduate. Sixty three (61.8%) people spend their time with friends for managing stress. In our study 74 (72.5%) volunteers have heard about musicotherapy and 95 (93.1%) of them think that it can be used in medical treatment like autizm, oncologic and psychiatric diseases. The most known music kind for musicotherapy was “sufi” music (n=69, 67.6%). Socioeconomic status and gender were not statistically important factors for the awareness of musicotherapy and its use for some diseases (p>0.05). Education level was statistically important factors for the awareness of musicotherapy and its use for some diseases (p=0.003). Conclusion: In this study we learned that although people do not know everything about musicotherapy, they look optimistically and curious for therapeutic effect of this method. We need to practice other studies to see the detailed effects of musicotherapy.