Music therapy's anxiety benefit remains unclear in critical illness
Trials in critically ill patients did not show a statistically clear anxiety reduction with music therapy. Their markedly different results make the pooled finding difficult to interpret.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The combined trials did not establish that music therapy reduced anxiety in critically ill patients. Results differed sharply across studies, and removing influential studies still left no statistically clear effect. This is an uncertain result rather than proof that music cannot help; the abstract does not describe the control conditions or anxiety scales in enough detail.
The studies were highly inconsistent. The abstract does not identify the anxiety scoring scale for the pooled estimate, and possible publication bias could not be formally assessed.
What researchers found
Pooled anxiety scores
The pooled mean difference across randomized trials was not statistically significant. Comparison care and assessment timing were not reported.
What the review measured
Researchers combined anxiety scores collected using validated assessments in trials of music therapy. The abstract does not identify the scales, assessment timing, or comparison care, so the pooled difference cannot be translated into a clear amount of symptom change.
Checking influential studies
The researchers repeated the analysis after excluding studies that strongly affected the pooled result. Study disagreement decreased, but the remaining evidence still did not show a statistically clear anxiety benefit, leaving the overall conclusion uncertain.
The original publication
Effect of music intervention on anxiety in critically ill patients, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Saqib M, Batool A, Iftikhar QUA et al.
J Crit Care · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40483921
- Record checked
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