Use of electronic music technologies for treatment of situational phobia: an exploratory study

Abstract

Background: Situational phobia was a condition in DSM5 which is under the disorder class of anxiety disorders. In this study, music intervention methodology developed by Magee & Burland (2008) were adopted to utilize electronic sound stimulus including various pure waveform (rectangular, square, triangular, and sine) plus the background of white noise to lessen participants’ situational phobia. Methodology: In this case study, 20 participants (Male = 10, Female = 10) with self-claimed situational phobia (16 reported to have phobia to activities like presentation, while others reporting situation including walking alone in the street). Participants did not have experience in participating other modalities of music intervention (e.g. singing-bowl intervention, or visiting to music therapists). Participants joined a self-paced activity with the Theremin apps (Femurdesign) which can choose the wave form (rectangular, square, triangular, sine), frequency, delay, and echoes and create sound or noises from movement of fingers on an Ipad device. Each session was 30 minutes (10 daily sessions in total) and the changes in participants’ HRV and heart rate were recorded, and the activities were also video taped for analysis. Participant were interviewed in an in-depth individual interview (two hours and thirty minutes) to describe his experience. The transcript were analyzed with descriptive phenomenology (Giorgi, 1997). Results: Finding suggested that the self-paced Theremin sessions could allow participants to release their anger through creating noises-like sound waves, and the change from angular (e.g. triangular, square, and rectangular) waves was later replaced by sine waves when participants found that his anger was released. The paper concludes with a discussion of impact of self-created noise as an art-form, and comparison of realist view (i.e. sound quality affect one’s mental health) versus relativist view (i.e. impact of sound quality depends on context and one’s own preference). (Project funded by HKSYU URG number 20/06)