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Topic · Social Psychology

Music Therapy and Health

Music Therapy and Health is a research topic within Social Psychology. Science Explorer counts 21k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the use of music as a therapeutic intervention for managing anxiety, stress, and psychological outcomes in various contexts such as preoperative settings, neurological rehabilitation, cancer treatment, and critical care. The research emphasizes the potential of music therapy in reducing anxiety, enhancing mood, and improving physiological and psychological well-being.

  • Music Therapy
  • Anxiety
  • Stress Reduction
  • Preoperative Anxiety
  • Psychological Outcomes
  • Pain Management
  • Neurological Rehabilitation
  • Physiological Responses
  • Cognitive Recovery
  • Mood Enhancement
Research works
21k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+46%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
28% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Music Therapy and Health

Which countries lead Music Therapy and Health research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.3k and 956 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.3k works
  2. 2 China 956 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 451 works
  4. 4 Türkiye 374 works
  5. 5 India 341 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 272 works
  7. 7 Germany 231 works
  8. 8 Australia 216 works
  9. 9 Iran 213 works
  10. 10 Canada 204 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 28.0%China: 21.1%United Kingdom: 10.0%Türkiye: 8.3%6 others listed: 32.6%28%largest
United States1,270 · 28.0%China956 · 21.1%United Kingdom451 · 10.0%Türkiye374 · 8.3%6 others listed1,478 · 32.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Music Therapy and Health research?

By volume in 2022-now, Aalborg University publishes the most Music Therapy and Health research, followed by Harvard University and The University of Melbourne.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Aalborg UniversityDenmark 42 works
  2. 2 Harvard UniversityUnited States 40 works
  3. 3 The University of MelbourneAustralia 39 works
  4. 4 University of TorontoCanada 31 works
  5. 5 Sichuan UniversityChina 25 works
  6. 6 Islamic Azad University, TehranIran 25 works
  7. 7 University of BergenNorway 23 works
  8. 8 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 23 works
  9. 9 Perfect Harmony HealthUnited States 22 works
  10. 10 Aarhus UniversityDenmark 20 works

Who are the leading researchers in Music Therapy and Health?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Music Therapy and Health include Ronald C. Kessler, Hermann Brenner and Mika Kivimäki.

  1. 1 Ronald C. Kessler United States 360k citations
  2. 2 Hermann Brenner Germany 343k citations
  3. 3 Mika Kivimäki United Kingdom 318k citations
  4. 4 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
  5. 5 Gregory Y.H. Lip United Kingdom 311k citations
  6. 6 JoAnn E. Manson United States 263k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Music Therapy and Health?

The most cited paper in Music Therapy and Health is "View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery" (Roger S. Ulrich, 1984), with 5,305 citations. Next come "The Patient Health Questionnaire Somatic, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptom Scales: a systematic review" (4,190) and "International experiences with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-A review of validation data and clinical results" (2,917).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 View Through a Window May Influence Recovery from Surgery Roger S. Ulrich · Science 27 Apr 1984 5,305
2 The Patient Health Questionnaire Somatic, Anxiety, and Depressive Symptom Scales: a systematic review Kurt Kroenke, Robert L. Spitzer, Janet B. W. Williams et al. · General Hospital Psychiatry Review 8 May 2010 4,190
3 International experiences with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale-A review of validation data and clinical results Christoph Siegfried Herrmann · Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1997 2,917
4 Postoperative Pain Experience: Results from a National Survey Suggest Postoperative Pain Continues to Be Undermanaged Jeffrey L. Apfelbaum, Connie Chen, Shilpa S. Mehta et al. · Anesthesia & Analgesia Aug 2003 2,223
5 Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density Britta Karen Hölzel, James Carmody, Mark G Vangel et al. · Psychiatry Research Neuroimaging Open access 11 Nov 2010 1,920
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Music Therapy and Health research done?

The largest centres of Music Therapy and Health research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Beijing (China), Istanbul (Türkiye) and Melbourne (Australia). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Aalborg and Bergen.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 137 works
  2. 2 BeijingChina 85 works
  3. 3 IstanbulTürkiye 78 works
  4. 4 MelbourneAustralia 73 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 67 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 67 works
  7. 7 TehranIran 59 works
  8. 8 SeoulSouth Korea 52 works
  9. 9 BostonUnited States 52 works
  10. 10 ChengduChina 50 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. AalborgDK · 43.0 works11×
  2. BergenNO · 33.0 works9.1×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Music Therapy and Health than the world average.

See Music Therapy and Health on the map

Where is the best place to study Music Therapy and Health?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, University of Toronto and The University of Melbourne score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.39%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Radboud University N…University of TorontoHarvard UniversityThe University of Me…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 68.212.9%2.1×40 +28.4%
2University of TorontoCanada 66.316.1%2.5×31 +13.2%
3The University of MelbourneAustralia 66.29.4%5.9×39 +50.9%
4Radboud University NijmegenNetherlands 63.631.1%2.5×9 +29.7%
5Erasmus University RotterdamNetherlands 63.123.1%4.7×15 +39.2%
6Anhui Medical UniversityChina 62.529.4%4.5×12 +234.3%
7Sichuan UniversityChina 60.117.7%1.9×25 +158.7%
8University of JyväskyläFinland 58.714.2%11.6×12 +33.9%
9Aarhus UniversityDenmark 58.015.9%4.0×20 +42.6%
10Chinese University of Hong KongChina 57.624.1%2.4×10 +82.5%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Music Therapy and Health, country by country

Is Music Therapy and Health research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 46% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Music Therapy and Health.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Music Therapy and Health as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.025% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Music Therapy and Health0.032% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Music Therapy and Health over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Music Therapy and Health10.1% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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