The effect of music as an intervention for post-stroke depression: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The clinical application of music therapy and research into its use and effectiveness are common in Western countries. The physiological role of this type of therapy is to stimulate the central nervous system through music, which may have a sedative, analgesic effect, and reduce negative emotions. Previous studies have confirmed that music can be effective for a range of psychological disorders, including post-stroke depression (PSD). There is, however, a lack of systematic evaluation of its effectiveness, and variability in sample size and in the quality of research has detracted from the persuasiveness of findings.

Based on PRISMA 2020, articles on music therapy intervention in post-stroke depression were identified through the Web of Science, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, Weipu, and Wanfang databases. The retrieval time was taken from the establishment of the database to October 18, 2022. Two researchers conducted a stringent evaluation of the quality of the articles and extracted the data. They then used RevMan5.3 software for meta-analysis.

Twenty articles were listed, involving 1625 patients. Meta-analysis results showed that music therapy could lower scores on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS/Ham-D), the National Institutes of Health stroke scale and self-rated depression scale for patients with PSD. Music therapy was also shown to improve the Barthel Index for Activities of Daily Living and treatment efficacy of PSD patients. However, music therapy did not reduce the incidence of adverse reactions in PSD patients.

Music therapy has benefits in improving HDRS/Ham-D score and symptoms of PSD patients, and could be more widely applied.