Music Therapy in Addiction Treatment

Addiction is one of the most pressing challenges that modern healthcare systems face: it affects millions of people worldwide, and its consequences for individuals and society are severe1. Conventional approaches to treatment, be they pharmacological or non-pharmacological, frequently run up against hard limits—especially when it comes to providing sustainable long-term care to those affected.2 Against this backdrop, music therapy is increasingly becoming a focus of research. Studies show that music therapy can reduce the cravings that drive individuals to consume problematic substances and/or engage in problematic behaviours while significantly increasing clients’ motivation to stick with treatment and make changes in terms of lifestyle and attitude.3 But even so, music therapy’s long-term effects in the context of addiction treatment have seen scant research thus far.

Since January 2025, the mdw and its Music Therapy Research Centre Vienna (WZMF) have been involved in the multinational music therapy research project FALCO: Fighting Addictions, Improving Lives: Comprehensive Drug Rehabilitation with Music4—which is Europe’s largest such study to date. Funded by the European Union through its Horizon Europe programme as well as by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research, and Innovation, this study investigates the integration of music therapy into established addiction treatment protocols across a total of eight participating countries (Italy, Israel, Norway, Austria, Palestine, Poland, Switzerland, and Spain). It will ultimately see a total of 600 participants assigned randomly to one of three groups: active music therapy combined with standard treatment as provided by their respective facilities, receptive music therapy combined with standard treatment, or standard treatment alone. Participation lasts one year for each person. The objective here is to investigate the impact of music therapy on the severity of addiction, on recovery, and on other health and socio-economic outcomes as well as to close the existing knowledge gap concerning the long-term effects of music therapy in addiction treatment.

Stakeholder Involvement

A major emphasis of FALCO, in which the WZMF team members Julia Fent, Tobias Aumann, and Ute Glentzer play key roles, is on the involvement of stakeholders—i.e., all individuals and organisations directly or indirectly affected by the study and/or its findings such as patients, music therapists, relatives, researchers, healthcare staff, and representatives of clinics, rehabilitation centres, and funding bodies. Their involvement throughout the study’s conduct is intended above all to ensure its relevance, its feasibility, and its findings’ effective implementation. This is being accomplished by inviting such experts to join advisory bodies at various levels—namely, an Expert Advisory Group (EAG) at the level of the overall project and Local Advisory Groups (LAGs) in all participating countries. The experts thus involved include individuals with various forms of expertise—expertise based on their own lived experience, on professional practice, or on scientific research.

Moreover, participatory sub-projects are being carried out at several study locations. One of these is situated in Vienna, where the addiction treatment centre Verein Dialog5 has been brought on board as a cooperating partner. The findings of the Viennese sub-project, which has been under development since April 2026 in collaboration with people who have experience of substance use disorders, are intended to complement those of the clinical study. The participatory aspect here consists in such individuals’ full involvement with actual decision-making power at all levels of the research process, from identifying topics to conducting research and disseminating the ultimate findings.

Participation as Science Communication

Science communication is a key component of the overall project: through their involvement in the advisory committees, stakeholders—ranging from affected individuals to credentialed specialists and institutions—acquire comprehensive insights into the study itself and how music therapy’s effects unfold, insights that they can then pass on to others in their respective fields.

Science communication is also a special priority in the Viennese sub-project. With this sub-project being radically participatory in character, the dissemination of its findings will likewise be participatory—meaning that the associated activities will be conceived and carried out jointly with the involved stakeholders. In this way, the project aims not only to expand the visibility of the study’s findings beyond the realm of academic discourse but also to promote these findings’ sustainable application within Vienna’s addiction treatment landscape.

  1. Degenhardt L., Charlson F., Ferrari A., et al. “The global burden of disease attributable to alcohol and drug use in 195 countries and territories, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016”. The Lancet Psychiatry. 2018;5(12):987-1012. doi:10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30337-7
  2. Svendsen T.S., Veseth M., McKay J.R., et al. “Securing Participant Engagement in Longitudinal Substance Use Disorder Recovery Research: A Qualitative Exploration of Key Retention Factors”. Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health. 2021;8(3):247–259. doi:10.1007/s40737-021-00222-y
  3. Ghetti C., Chen X.J., Brenner A.K., et al. “Music therapy for people with substance use disorders”. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2022;(5). doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012576.pub3
  4. falco-project.eu
  5. dialog-on.at
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