Critique of the Article

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Randomized controlled trials are effective research design to evaluate the effect of a new
intervention using the process of randomization and allocation concealment. It eliminates any
source of bias and increased the validity of the research findings. The main purpose of this paper
is to critically appraise a randomized controlled trial evaluating the impact of music therapy on
patients with depression (Deaton & Cartwright, 2018). The study by Erkkila et al. (2019) has
been identified which is based on the PICO question, ‘Does music therapy helps in reducing de-
pression among adults suffering from depressive disorder?’. The essay aims to evaluate the va-
lidity of the finding and understand the true effect of music therapy in reducing depression in the
case scenario of Jackie West, a 43 year old patient diagnosed with depression.
From the review of the trial, it can be said that Erkkila et al. (2019) addressed a clearly fo-
cused issue. Depression is a disabling disease that causes several problems like reduction in the
quality of life and loss of general functioning of the body. There had been many papers that had
supported the use of specific music therapy techniques in treating symptoms of depression. An
effective research title should be simple and should not contain, unnecessary jargons and words.
It can be seen that the title describes about the topic, the method of the study and the interven-
tion, but probably does not contain any information about a specific target group and the title is
not particularly catchy.
The participants who had been chosen in the study were randomized using simple random-
ization with a 10:7 ratio of the standards care to the music therapy. The unequal ratio of the ran-
domization was one chosen for maximize the possibility and power inside a given budget and the
time constraints. Randomization of the study is done mainly to prevent the selection bias and
also insures against any kind of accidental bias (Brooman & Darwent, 2014). Randomization
produces two control groups and eliminates the sources of bias in the treatment assignments. A

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CRITIQUE OF THE ARTICLE
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
good randomization minimizes the variability of the evaluation and provides an unbiased evalua-
tion of the interventions by avoiding the confounding from the other factors.
The strength of the paper was that all the patients who entered the trial properly accounted
for at conclusion. The trial was not stopped earlier. The analysis of the sample size was done by
using the result of a systematic review of a previous dose dependent relationship with the music
and mental disorders. Each of the patients in the group were analyzed (Andrade, 2015). The
study is a single blinded study, as the assessors did not have any clue about the allocation of the
participants to the control groups and the intervention group. A single blind study can be helpful
in reducing bias in a study. The results are likely to be affected by the factors that are not related
to the treatment and the intervention being tested (Hedlund-(de Witt, De Boer & Boersema,
2014).
According to the features of a good RCT papers, the groups were similar at the starting of the
trial. A sample of 79 adult suffering from unipolar depression ranging between 18-50 years of
age was included in the study. The primary diagnosis of all the participants was depression. A
structural clinical interview for DSM-III-R was used in the health care centres and the polyclin-
ics for the diagnosis of the depression. Since anxiety is part of depression, it was also considered.
One of the drawback of this study is that participants between the age group 18-50 years of age
has been selected. This large range between the participants can be result in bias, as elderly peo-
ple are more susceptible to bias.
Appropriate randomization process was used. All the participants have been recruited for the
study by means of randomization. A psychiatric assessment was conducted at the baseline and at
3-and 6-month follow up. This was done immediately after the intervention provided to the mu-
sic therapy group. The various outcomes of all the patients, both the control group and the inter-