Effects of Widespread and Frequent Personalized Music Programming on Agitation and Depression in Assisted Living Facility Residents With Alzheimer-Type Dementia

A music intervention was performed to examine the effects of customized music programming on agitation and depression in a sample of assisted living facility residents (N 1⁄4 38) with moderate-to-severe dementia. Following a 2-week no-music baseline period, music programs were streamed to the rooms of individuals assigned to a music group (N 1⁄4 19) several hours per day each day for 12 weeks. Ambulatory residents assigned to the control group were incidentally exposed to the music programming in the course of daily life. Reductions in composite scores on the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, Neuropsychiatric Inventory, and Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia were rapid and sustained in both groups. Creating an almost omnipresent musical atmosphere directed at the musical preferences and listening histories of residents in an assisted living facility may reduce average levels of agitation and depression among the residents.