Effects of music therapy on depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Tang Q, Huang Z, Zhou H, Ye P
PloS one · 71 citations
How it was studied
- Design
- Meta-analysis (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Health markers and function
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Independent funding
- Government
- Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China
- Government
- Research Project of Anhui Province Social Science Innovation Development
- Government
- Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth fund Project
- Government
- Key Project of University Humanities and Social Science Research in Anhui Province
Based on 4 listed funder(s) and full-text disclosure statement.
Publication
- Published
- 2020-11-18 · PLoS One · vol. 15 · issue 11 · p. e0240862
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science
- Cited
- 151 citations · more than 86% of similar papers · 2.3× the field average
- References
- 77 works
- Access
- Open access (journal) · CC-BY
- Research areas
- Music Therapy and Health · Art Therapy and Mental Health · Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- Music therapy, Randomized controlled trial, Medicine, Meta-analysis, Internal medicine, Strictly standardized mean difference, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Depression (economics), Physical therapy
- MeSH
- humans, treatment outcome, music therapy, depression, time factors, female, male, randomized controlled trials as topic
4 authors
From CN
- Qishou TangBengbu Medical College
- Zhaohui HuangAnhui Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention
- Huan ZhouBengbu Medical College; First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College
- Peijie Ye · correspondingBengbu Medical College
Abstract
Background
We aimed to determine and compare the effects of music therapy and music medicine on depression, and explore the potential factors associated with the effect.
Methods
PubMed (MEDLINE), Ovid-Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Clinical Evidence were searched to identify studies evaluating the effectiveness of music-based intervention on depression from inception to May 2020. Standardized mean differences (SMDs) were estimated with random-effect model and fixed-effect model.
Results
A total of 55 RCTs were included in our meta-analysis. Music therapy exhibited a significant reduction in depressive symptom (SMD = -0.66; 95% CI = -0.86 to -0.46; P<0.001) compared with the control group; while, music medicine exhibited a stronger effect in reducing depressive symptom (SMD = -1.33; 95% CI = -1.96 to -0.70; P<0.001). Among the specific music therapy methods, recreative music therapy (SMD = -1.41; 95% CI = -2.63 to -0.20; P<0.001), guided imagery and music (SMD = -1.08; 95% CI = -1.72 to -0.43; P<0.001), music-assisted relaxation (SMD = -0.81; 95% CI = -1.24 to -0.38; P<0.001), music and imagery (SMD = -0.38; 95% CI = -0.81 to 0.06; P = 0.312), improvisational music therapy (SMD = -0.27; 95% CI = -0.49 to -0.05; P = 0.001), music and discuss (SMD = -0.26; 95% CI = -1.12 to 0.60; P = 0.225) exhibited a different effect respectively. Music therapy and music medicine both exhibited a stronger effects of short and medium length compared with long intervention periods.
Conclusions
A different effect of music therapy and music medicine on depression was observed in our present meta-analysis, and the effect might be affected by the therapy process.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher (CC BY).
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