Effect of Music Therapy on Stress: Is it Really Effective?

Abstract

Those with a history of anxiety, depression in the family, tragedy (divorce, recent death of relatives etc.) were excluded. Those who had had music incorporated in their practice for at least a year were assessed and compared with those who had not. Both case (n = 40) and controls (n = 40) were assessed using the DASS-42 questionnaire and the data were analyzed via Mann-Whitney-U test and Chi-square test. It was interesting that significantly more stress (p<0.009), anxiety (p<0.006) and depression (p<0.009) was noted in the control group while no relationship was found between demographic variables. In conclusion, our study findings showed that in our clinical setting, dentists who had relaxing music incorporated in their practice had significantly lower levels of stress, anxiety and depression regardless of age, sex, type of practice, years of practice or other demographic variables. Relaxing music played an essential role in alleviation of stress in practicing dentists. Integrating music in clinical practice may be important to maintaining mental health. Further studies to assess different genera of music on stress, anxiety and depression in dentists are warranted. REFERENCES