Source note · R085
Making music for mental health: how group drumming mediates recovery
Selected participants describe how a drumming programme supported their experience of recovery.
- Setting
- Related music & arts
- Kind of evidence
- Qualitative & case studies
- Review extent
- Appraisal and selected source sections checked
What was studied
Interviews and focus groups involved 39 mental-health service users and carers selected after reporting recovery through a UK drumming programme.
What it contributes
Interviews and focus groups with 39 patients/carers identified nonverbal communication, rhythm and grounding, belonging and safety, and inclusive embodied learning without fear of mistakes as mechanisms supporting recovery.
Where the evidence stops
Qualitative IPA study of 39 patients and carers who had demonstrated recovery; selected recovery sample and likely overlaps the associated drumming program literature. Its title does not mean that a statistical causal mediation analysis was performed.
One drumming programme, related analyses
These papers come from the same UK group-drumming research programme. The 2016 Perkins and 2018 Ascenso qualitative papers analyze the same 39-person sample, not independent replications. The Fancourt controlled study is a related programme report; its participants must not simply be added to the qualitative sample.
About this review
The accepted research appraisal was compared with the supplied text, including bibliographic and study-design details. This production check is not a fresh audit of every table, appendix or cited study.
Bibliographic details checked against the supplied work. A linked source provides the public retrieval route.
Source note updated September 9, 2026. Read our approach to evidence.