| The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a music therapy protocol for patients with Parkinson's disease on (a) speech intelligibility; (b) voice quality; (c) vocal intensity range; (d) intonation; (e) positive affect; (f) negative affect; and (g) depressive state. Seventeen patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and three patients with Parkinson syndromes volunteered to participate in this study. Patients were randomly assigned to either the music therapy group (N = 10) or the control group (N = 10). The patients in the music therapy group received eight individual Music Therapy Voice Protocol (MTVP) sessions, focusing on vocal and singing exercises. Participants received assessments prior to the first session (test 1), after the fourth session (test 2), and following the eighth session (test 3) on each dependent variable. The remaining 10 participants received the same three tests as the music therapy group, but received no music therapy voice protocol sessions. The statistical calculation revealed that speech intelligibility, resonant voice quality, vocal intensity range, intonation, and positive affect significantly increased in the music therapy group over time, but not in the control group. In contrast, no significant difference was identified in clear and smooth voice quality, negative affect, or depressive state in either group, which might indicate that more than eight sessions are required to achieve treatment effect. The study provided important information about potentials of music therapy speech rehabilitation on vocal parameters related to disease and psychological effect. |
