Receptive Music Therapy for the Treatment of Depression

Summary

Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent in the population. According to data from a Zurich longitudinal study, the lifetime incidence rate for severe depressive symptoms is 95%. Not all persons with depressive symptoms, however, need psychotherapeutic, psychiatric or pharmaceutical treatment. Many people specifically or unspecifically use music to influence their mood and clinical evidence demonstrates that active involvement in music supports an individual's treatment success during psychiatric therapy. The gray area of depressive symptoms that do not require medical treatment, but which contribute to a considerable disturbance of an individual's quality of life and ability to work, is the focus of the proposed study.

The study investigates whether listening to specific music programs arranged to influence depressive symptoms for 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evenings can result in improvement of an individual's symptoms, as compared to listening to no prescribed music or no music treatment at all. Of specific interest is the use of music in the evening, which may contribute to the achievement of restive sleep.

The study's objective is to determine if the utilization of two specific music therapies to treat depressive symptoms, compared to a waiting list control intervention and an intervention listening to Mozart over a 5 week period, leads to an improvement of the depressive pathology among patients with moderate depressive disorders or patients with dysthymia. The study is designed as a simple blinded placebo-controlled study.

Conditions

• Depression

Interventions

OTHER

Purpose designed music and sound listening program

Listening to one of two different specific music programs (Group A and B), which is composed for the treatment of depressive symptoms. The music is listened to during a period of 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening over 5 - 15 weeks.

OTHER

Sham music for depression

Listening 30 min in the morning and 30 min in the evening to selection of Mozart compositions over 5 weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Heidelberg University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Vera Brandes · Paracelsus Medizinische Privatunsiversität, Salzburg

• Joachim E Fischer, Prof MD MSc · Mannheim Insitute of Public Health, Mannheim Medical Faculty, Heidelberg University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

TRIPLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2008-03-31

Primary Completion

2008-07-31

Completion

2008-07-31

Countries

• Austria

Study Locations