Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is a multifactorial neurodevelopmental disorder with increasing prevalence worldwide. Given the heterogeneity of autism, it is highly unlikely to have a single effective therapy for autism. Adversities associated with current pharma-therapies in treating autism have prompted the emergence of alternative therapies including variety of behavioral and music interventions. Autistic children, who tend to show a strong preference for music, makes music therapy a promising intervention for autism. Music interventions have shown improved mental and physical health across multiple domains including autism. Previous clinical trials of music therapy versus traditional therapy for autistic children have shown encouraging but mixed results. In that regard, Indian classical music is postulated to exert enhanced benefits due to its melodic uniqueness. Current randomized controlled pilot study evaluated enhanced benefits of Indian classical music-Raga co-treatment added to the conventional standard care in 5-12 years old verbal autistic children. Participants were randomly assigned either to comprehensive standard care (Std) comprised of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and occupational Sensory Integration Therapy (SIT), or to Raga-Music therapy added to the standard care. The comparative effectiveness of Raga-Music therapy add-on was evaluated over 8-weeks of treatment duration, as assessed by primary and secondary outcome measures. The primary outcome measure included the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) assessment that evaluated the progression of autism, while the secondary outcome measures included sensory processing assessment using Sensory Profile 2 (SP2) followed by Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) with satisfaction, before and after the treatment. Raga-Music co-treatment was found to accentuate the benefits of standard treatment in reducing the progression of autism along with improvement in sensory profile of verbal autistic children. Current study supports the notion of Raga-Music as an effective add-on for early intervention autism healthcare program while warranting further investigation.
Keywords
Autism spectrum disorder, Music therapy, Indian classical music, Raga, Emotional upliftment, Sensory profile, ABA, SP2, ATEC, COPM