Effects of music therapy on depression: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Abstract

BackgroundWe aimed to determine and compare the effects of music therapy and music medicine on depression, and explore the potential factors associated with the effect.MethodsPubMed (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.ResultsA 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; PConclusionsA 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.