FALCO

Fighting addictions, improving lives: comprehensive drug rehabilitation with music

Substance use disorder is associated with a high global burden of disease. Highly prevalent multimorbidity includes polysubstance use, mental health conditions, and other non-communicable and infectious diseases. Where traditional treatments are insufficient alone, music therapy is highly engaging and improves motivation and craving, but its long-term effects are unknown.

In a diverse group of people with substance use disorder across a wide range of age, gender, socioeconomic, and cultural background, a parallel 3-arm multinational randomised clinical trial will determine long-term effects of music therapy (active music groups and music listening groups) versus treatment as usual on addiction severity, recovery, and other health and socioeconomic outcomes. Embedded trials will examine short-term effects of individual components of treatment as usual combined with music therapy to determine the best combinations of interventions. Experimental studies will examine mechanisms using neuropsychological tests and brain imaging. With 600 participants in seven countries randomised, the trial has 80% power on the primary outcome. Patient representatives, HTA bodies, and interventionists have been involved from conception and will ensure feasibility and applicability across Europe.

FALCO will reduce disease burden through innovative, effective, and affordable treatment and will strengthen research and innovation expertise. Recommendations from FALCO will inform intervention delivery across Europe and beyond, leading to increased safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, and improved quality of life for people with SUD. Stakeholders will be involved in communicating findings in all European countries and regions and ensuring that findings are effectively implemented.

mdw's main role in this multinational project is to engage users and stakeholders in the research. This involves providing appropriate counselling and training to international project partners and local co-researchers on participatory processes, as well as running a participatory sub-project in Vienna as part of the larger study. Furthermore, mdw is involved in the development of guidelines for music therapy treatments in the FALCO project. In Vienna, music therapy will be provided at Anton Proksch Institute's outpatient clinic "Treffpunkt 1050".

Consortium: NORCE Norwegian Research Centre (overall management). For all participants, see Cordis.

Project lead (mdw): Julia Fent and Thomas Stegemann

Project staff (mdw): N.N.

Project duration: January 2025 – December 2029

Funding: European Union (Horizon Europe)

Funding amount: EUR 397,425.00 (mdw only; EUR 1,804,758.34 total)

Contact: fent@mdw.ac.at