Tuning Into Recovery: A Quasi-Experimental Study on Music-Based Intervention and Treatment Readiness among Substance Use Disorder Clients in Kenya

Background: Low treatment readiness often impacts on treatment outcomes among clients with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) in Kenya. This implies a need to focus on ways to improve the clients’ treatment readiness. Evidence suggests that music-based interventions (MBI) could be effective as complementary therapy in enhancing treatment readiness among clients with SUD. However, such evidence was inconclusive suggesting a need for more studies. Therefore, this study seeks to establish the efficacy of MBI in enhancing treatment readiness among clients with SUDs in selected residential treatment centers in Kenya. Methods: The subjects of the study were 40 clients in a residential treatment facility for substance use disorders in Kenya with two branches. 20 clients in branch A served as the treatment group while another 20 in branch B as the control. A quasi-experimental pretest post-test design was used. The MBI was administered to the treatment group in addition to treatment as usual (TAU), while the control group only received TAU. The Texas Christian University treatment readiness subscale was administered to measure treatment readiness (TR) before and after the intervention and the scores were compared. Results: ANCOVA revealed significant differences between the treatment and control groups, with the treatment group having significantly higher means in TR after controlling for covariates. Conclusion: The findings suggest that MBI in addition to TAU may have potential to improve TR among clients with SUD in Kenya and could be an area of focus for more interrogation in future.