Question

authors argue that there is no updated evidence on the effectiveness of music therapy and other musical interventions on different outcomes of neurological disorders despite a significant amount of data on neurological disorders.

Elaborate your opinion about this topic?

Answer 1

From the References Below, I produce the following findings

• Music benefits processing of speech stimulus ( Musacchia et al., 2007; Schon, Magne, & Besson, 2004; Wong, Skoe, Russo, Dees, & Kraus, 2007)
• Music Therapy improves executive function and overall emotional adjustment, and reduction of depression, sensation seeking, and anxiety (Thaut, M. H., Gardiner, J. C., Holmberg, D., Horwitz, J., Kent, L., Andrews, G., Donelan, B. and McIntosh, G. R. (2009), Neurologic Music Therapy Improves Executive Function and Emotional Adjustment in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169: 406–416. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04585.x
• Relaxes anxiety and aggression, increases melatonin production, (Kumar, Adarsh M; Tims, Frederick; Cruess, Dean G; Mintzer, Michael J; et al. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; Aliso Viejo Vol. 5, Iss. 6,  (Nov 1999): 49-57.)
• A review claims that PubMed and PsycInfo databases provide 25 studies (as of 2015) out of which 11 examine the effect of Music on Dementia, 9 on Patients with stroke, 5 on diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease (Raglio A, Attardo L, Gontero G, Rollino S, Groppo E, Granieri E. Effects of music and music therapy on mood in neurological patients. World Journal of Psychiatry. 2015;5(1):68-78. doi:10.5498/wjp.v5.i1.68.)
• Music Therapy improves the quality of life in patients with Huntington's DISEASE. ( Improving quality of life in patients with Huntington’s disease through music therapy: A qualitative explorative study using focus group discussions Monique van Bruggen-Rufi, Annemieke Vink, Wilco Achterberg & Raymund Roos Nordic Journal of Music Therapy Vol. 27, Iss. 1, 2018 )
• It has been proposed to stimulate brain areas which control emotional processing, motor control regions such as fronto-parietal network ( The role of music therapy in rehabilitation: improving aphasia and beyond Simona Leonardi, Alberto Cacciola, Rosaria De Luca, Bianca Aragona, Veronica Andronaco, Demetrio Milardi, Placido Bramanti & Rocco Salvatore Calabrò International Journal of Neuroscience Vol. 128, Iss. 1, 2018)
• A study suggests Music Therapy has positive effects in people with Parkinson's Disease. (Baird, Abell, Forde Thompson, Bullot, Haertsch & Chalmers | Singing Enhances Positive Affect in PD Music & Medicine | 2018 | Volume 10 | Issue 1 | Pages 13 – 17)

Hence we can see there is ample evidence, even from recent years, for the Research community to organize studies on a large scale to further validate and more importantly quantify the results. But yes as of now it is not enough for the mainstream medical professionals to prescribe Music Therapy on a large scale. If hospitals and centers around the world could quantify the positive effects documented and further experiment to expand the bracket of diseases and pathways affected by music, one can expect the therapy to be more widely accepted among the community and the people.