Music-Based Interventions for Apathy in Dementia, Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders: A Scoping Review Protocol

Apathy is a prominent and highly disabling condition in neurodegenerative and movement disorders, posing treatment challenges associated with the heterogeneity of diagnostic criteria, the inconsistent results across different assessment tools, and the confounding role of comorbidities with cognitive impairment and depression. Despite a consistent body of literature on music-based interventions in dementia and Parkinson’s disease for motor and non-motor symptoms, the impact of this non-pharmacological treatment option on apathy remains unclear. The proposed scoping review will include experimental studies and reviews that investigate music-based interventions for apathy in dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other movement disorders. Studies that discuss music therapy and music medicine will be included if sufficient intervention descriptions are provided to identify receptive and active techniques and activities. Studies investigating apathy in the context of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, as well as those investigating pure apathy as a specific syndrome, will be included if their methods provide a quantitative assessment of apathy. Databases of health evidence will be searched without limitations of language and timeframe, and published peer-reviewed articles of quantitative experimental studies and reviews will be included if they are available in full text in English. The review process will be conducted by two independent reviewers, and potential conflicts will be resolved by consulting a third reviewer if necessary. After de-duplication, titles and abstracts will be screened for eligibility, and the full texts of the included studies will be screened against the inclusion criteria, providing reasons in case of exclusion. The data extraction will present the study demographics and methodological highlights, along with the set of investigated outcomes, apathy assessment tools, intervention characteristics and results. Unlike systematic reviews, this scoping review will not appraise the quality of the evidence but will broadly map the existing literature exploring potential subdiagnostic and transdiagnostic methodological approaches and results to synthesize and contribute to generating recommendations for future research.