Effect of music therapy on patient experience in gastrointestinal endoscopy: a scoping review

Music therapy is a low-cost and low-risk intervention that has been shown to improve patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) in various areas of medicine including gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy. A scoping review was performed to answer the following research question: What is known from the existing literature about the effect of music therapy used in adult GI endoscopy on PROMs (eg pain, anxiety) and PREMs (eg satisfaction, willingness to repeat procedure)?

Guided by the methodologic framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley, 3 medical databases were queried for articles pertinent to the research question and published between January 2005 and December 2024. Studies were selected for inclusion based on established criteria and summarized in a comprehensive data table as well as accompanying figures.

A total of 30 original research articles were selected for inclusion. The most reported outcomes were pain (N = 21), anxiety (N = 21), and satisfaction (N = 14). Significant improvements following music therapy were described most commonly for anxiety (N = 15, 71% of 21) and satisfaction (N = 10, 71% of 14) and less commonly for pain (N = 11, 52% of 21). Reductions in pain and anxiety were more consistent for music interventions performed in the pre-endoscopy period.

Music therapy appears to be an effective means of improving anxiety and satisfaction in patients undergoing GI endoscopy. Endoscopists should consider music therapy as a non-pharmacologic adjunct to improve the patient experience in endoscopy.