{"title":"The impact of music therapy on agitation in elderly patients with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis.","authors":"Jing Hu, Ling Xu","doi":"10.1016/j.archger.2025.106048","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Agitation impacts 50 - 80 % of elderly dementia patients, imposing burdens on caregivers and healthcare systems. Pharmacological treatments are limited, whereas non-pharmacological music therapy (MT) holds promise. This study sought to evaluate MT's efficacy in alleviating agitation. A thorough search across multiple databases was carried out, incorporating 14 studies (10 RCTs, 4 pre-post trials; n = 847). Meta-analysis demonstrated that MT significantly reduced agitation with a moderate effect size (d = 0.42). Subgroup analyses yielded consistent findings. Heterogeneity was low, and publication bias was negligible. MT effectively mitigated agitation in dementia patients despite heterogeneity in aspects like music duration and genre, underscoring its generalizability, particularly in resource-constrained areas and households lacking professional nursing support. It offers evidence for integrating MT into patient care. The review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251033860).</p>","PeriodicalId":93880,"journal":{"name":"Archives of gerontology and geriatrics","volume":"140 ","pages":"106048"},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Archives of gerontology and geriatrics","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2025.106048","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Agitation impacts 50 - 80 % of elderly dementia patients, imposing burdens on caregivers and healthcare systems. Pharmacological treatments are limited, whereas non-pharmacological music therapy (MT) holds promise. This study sought to evaluate MT's efficacy in alleviating agitation. A thorough search across multiple databases was carried out, incorporating 14 studies (10 RCTs, 4 pre-post trials; n = 847). Meta-analysis demonstrated that MT significantly reduced agitation with a moderate effect size (d = 0.42). Subgroup analyses yielded consistent findings. Heterogeneity was low, and publication bias was negligible. MT effectively mitigated agitation in dementia patients despite heterogeneity in aspects like music duration and genre, underscoring its generalizability, particularly in resource-constrained areas and households lacking professional nursing support. It offers evidence for integrating MT into patient care. The review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251033860).