Examining the Research Gap in the Study of Music Therapy Applications in Nigerian Mental Health Contexts

Music therapy as a formally structured therapeutic modality has demonstrated significant effectiveness in mental health treatment internationally, yet its research and practice foundation in Nigerian healthcare contexts is extremely limited, representing a critical gap at the intersection of creative arts and health scholarship. This study systematically examined the research gap in music therapy applications in Nigerian mental health contexts through scoping review and primary research. A systematic scoping review of 11 databases identified only 9 publications from 2010 to 2024 that described any form of structured music therapy application within Nigerian healthcare contexts, compared with hundreds of comparable publications from European, North American, and South African contexts. A qualitative gap analysis of these 9 publications and structured interviews with 18 mental health clinicians and 12 music practitioners across Lagos, Enugu, and Kano identified five dimensions of the evidence gap: the absence of professional music therapy training programmes in Nigeria, the absence of music therapy research protocols, the under-theorisation of traditional Nigerian musical healing practices as precursors to formal therapy, the absence of clinician awareness and referral frameworks, and the complete absence of music therapy services in public mental health facilities. The study proposes a research agenda encompassing both formal music therapy development and systematic documentation of indigenous musical healing traditions that could inform culturally grounded Nigerian music therapy models. This constitutes an original contribution to the creative arts therapeutics research landscape.

Keywords: music therapy, mental health, Nigeria, research gap, creative arts therapeutics