An Integrative Bio-Psycho-Musical Assessment Model for the Treatment of Musicians: Part I—A Continuum of Support

Abstract

Musicians often present with a host of problems that warrant a range of treatment options. The identification of symptoms, explication of music history, and narrative perception of performance biography require a comprehensive assessment approach to assist in expediting an effective treatment plan. Identified problems for musicians relate to the impediment of physical function or to performance anxiety, overuse, and/or symptoms that can range from chronic fatigue to depression or can lead to chemical dependency, denial, or in some cases an arrest in practice, play, and/or performance. At times, injury has ended a musician’s performance career and has posed a severe threat to the musician’s economic stability. This is the result of the musician’s medical recommendation whereby prolonged rest of the injured extremity or area is prescribed. In a survey of orchestral musicians by the U.S. Department of Labor (Horvath, 2002), 76% of the respondents stopped performing temporarily because they developed serious injury during their career. Some musicians have even been unable to return to their performance career. This article is the first of a two-part series on an integrative bio-psycho-musical approach to addressing and treating musicians. It is based on the authors’ co-directorship of a center for music and medicine and their extensive study of musicians’ medical and psychosocial presentations.