Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients

Bradt J, Dileo C. Music for stress and anxiety reduction in coronary heart disease patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 2. Art. No.: CD006577. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006577.pub2

http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD006577/music-to-reduce-stress-and-anxiety-for-coronary-heart-disease-patients

Individuals with coronary heart disease often suffer from severe distress putting them at greater risk for complications, including sudden cardiac death. This review included 23 randomized controlled trials with a total of 1461 participants. The findings suggest that music listening may have a beneficial effect on blood pressure and heart rate in people with coronary heart disease. Music listening also appears to be effective in reducing anxiety in myocardial infarction patients. No evidence for anxiety-reducing effects of music was found for patients undergoing cardiac procedures. This may be due to the fact that anxiety was measured after the completion of the procedure rather than during it.

Music listening may also reduce pain and respiratory rate, however the magnitude of these effects is small and the quality of the evidence is not strong. Therefore, its clinical importance is unclear.

No evidence of effect was found for depression, heart rate variability, or peripheral skin temperature. Inconsistent results were found for mood. However, only a small number of trials investigated the effects of music on these outcomes. More research is needed.

The vast majority of the studies examined the effects of patients’ listening to pre-recorded music. More research is needed on the effects of music offered by a trained music therapist.