Effect of Music Therapy on Pain Level Among Hospitalized Patients in Rehabilitation’s Center: Controlled, Randomized Trial

Music and music therapy is both classic and new as a method to improve symptoms in patients with chronic pathologies. In order to find interesting results we have conducted a controlled, randomized study (N = 88) on 88 patients with low back pain, knee and hip osteoarthritis in order to assess the impact of music therapy as a method within a rehabilitation program. Patients were hospitalized for 12 days. The patients were randomized on alternate months. The intervention group (N = 41) received standardized physical therapy plus two music therapy sessions per day (30 min per session) between day 1 and day 12. The control group received standardized physical therapy alone (N = 47). The assessment criteria evaluated on day 1 and day 12 included: intensity of pain, functional capacity, impact of pain on social life aspects (Brief Pain Inventory-SF Questionnaire), anxiety (ASI-3 index) and personality type (Big Five Inventory) were collected on day 1 and 12. Pain intensity was also evaluated before and after music therapy sessions. Our results confirmed that music therapy integrated in rehabilitation can be a useful complementary treatment to pain reduction, improved functional capacity, and on social aspects for patient with higher level of anxiety or different kind of personality types.