The Effectiveness of Music Therapy on Depression, Quality of Life and Happiness of Women with Depression

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of music therapy on depression, quality of life and happiness of women with depression. This study methodology was quasi-experimental with one group pretest posttest design. 30 patients with minor and mild depression selected by purposeful sampling method on the basis of their attained cut-off point in Beck Depression Inventory (10-14 scores) and inclusion criteria (minimum education diploma, female gender, interesting to music) and formed this study experimental group. Then, 16 music therapy sessions were conducted on them. The data collection tools were including Long Form Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Short Form (36) Health Survey (SF-36) and Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) that were conducted as a pretest and posttest. Kolmogoroph-Smirnov Test was carried out for investigation of data normality and finally, the data were analyzed with two dependent sample t-test. The results showed that there is a significant difference between obtained data from depression, happiness and quality of life of women with depression before and after music therapy. The effectiveness of this intervention on quality of life was more than happiness. These findings suggest that music therapy as a low-cost and accessible method to be applied to increasing of happiness and quality of life and reducing of depression in women with depression.