ReviewCureus2025
Music Therapy for People With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects social interaction, communication, and learning, with its prevalence continuing to rise, and music therapy (MT) has shown promise in improving social interactions and communication skills in individuals with ASD. This systematic review explores the relationship between ASD and music therapy, examining factors that influence its effectiveness in children. A systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published between 2009 and 2024 was conducted to assess the effects of music therapy on children with autism. Studies were retrieved from databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar, with the final search completed by October 1, 2024, and only RCTs that evaluated music's impact on ASD and reported relevant outcomes were included, while non-RCTs, studies with a high risk of bias, and duplicates were excluded. A total of nine RCTs involving 1,327 children with ASD, aged 2-12, were analyzed; these studies assessed various music therapy interventions lasting from two weeks to eight months, with sessions occurring one to three times per week. Findings were mixed, as four studies with 449 participants reported significant improvements in social communication skills, while three larger studies with 715 participants found no significant changes in primary social outcomes but noted improvements in specific aspects of social responsiveness, and two smaller studies with 59 participants reported notable enhancements in verbal production and emotional responsiveness. Music therapy has been recognized as a beneficial intervention for improving health outcomes across various conditions, including mental health disorders, and this review highlights its potential in autism, particularly in enhancing cognitive processing, emotional responses, and social communication; however, while the findings are promising, further research with larger sample sizes and extended study durations is necessary to validate these effects.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.