Therapeutic Interventions for Music Performance Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis.

Area of Science:

• Music Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Music performance anxiety (MPA) significantly impacts musicians' well-being and professional careers.
• Existing literature on MPA interventions requires systematic evaluation to guide clinical practice.
• Understanding the efficacy of diverse therapeutic approaches is crucial for developing targeted treatments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and evaluate published literature on interventions for treating music performance anxiety (MPA).
• To synthesize findings from quantitative pre-post interventional studies assessing MPA treatment outcomes.
• To identify common intervention types and assess the overall evidence base for MPA therapies.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, and PsychInfo (Ovid) databases.
• Inclusion criteria focused on quantitative pre-post interventional studies using recognized outcome measures or clinical diagnoses for MPA.
• Narrative synthesis of 40 extracted studies involving 1365 participants.

Main Results:

• Intervention types included cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, music therapy, yoga/mindfulness, virtual reality, hypnotherapy, biofeedback, and multimodal therapy.
• Most studies reported encouraging improvements in musicians' MPA following interventions.
• Significant methodological weaknesses were identified across the reviewed studies.

Conclusions:

• The current evidence base for MPA interventions is nascent and requires further development.
• Methodological limitations such as small sample sizes, treatment heterogeneity, lack of follow-up, and non-standardized assessments hinder definitive conclusions.
• Further high-quality research, including randomized controlled trials, is necessary to establish the efficacy of specific MPA interventions.