Effectiveness of the "Emotion Recognition" Music Therapy Module in Schizophrenia Patients: A Quasi Experimental Study

One of the deficit domains of social cognition in schizophrenia patients is emotion recognition. Negative emotion recognition deficits, such as emotional deficits of fear, anger, and sadness already exist in the first episode of schizophrenia. Music as therapy is known to be beneficial for emotional improvement, as well as the emotional experience of patients with schizophrenia. This study was aimed to assess the validity and effectiveness of a music therapy module “emotion recognition” in improving recognition of basic emotions in patients with schizophrenia. This quasi experimental study was conducted at the adult outpatient clinic at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital. The research was conducted in 2 steps. The first step to assess the validity of the module by calculate the I-CVI, S-CVI, and CVR of validity test and the second step to implement the music therapy module to the patient. This study assessed 15 subjects of schizophrenic remission patients who attended music therapy for 10 sessions conducted from March 2020 to July 2020. Subjects were assessed pre and post music therapy test results to see the effectivity of the module as seen by improvements in recognition of 5 basic emotions (happy, sad, anger, fear, tender) using the Mcnemar statistical test. The results of the validity test of the module showed the I-CVI of 0.98, S-CVI of 0.95, and CVR of 0.97. There was a significant improvement in the emotional deficits of fear and anger, with an increase in the pre and post music therapy test scores with a p-value 0.016 in the anger emotion and 0.008 in fear emotion, but not significant in the happy, sad, and tender emotions (p-value> 0.05). The emotion recognition music therapy module has good content validity, and effectiveness in emotion recognition of some of the basic emotions of remission schizophrenia patients, especially the emotion recognition of fear and anger.