Effects of music as an adjunctive therapy on severity of symptoms in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: Randomized controlled trial

Abstract

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a critical mental disorder. Music listening is non-invasive, safe and harmless, well-tolerated, inexpensive, and has therapeutic advantages in a wide range of mental disorders. The impact of passive music listening as an adjunctive therapy on symptoms severity in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder was evaluated in this study.Methods: In a parallel posttest-study only randomized controlled trial, 36 patients (range 19 to 65 years) were randomly allocated to experimental group (n = 17) or control group (n = 19) in Duhok, Iraq in 2017. The experimental group received seven 50-minute relaxing music tracks to listen daily in addition to regular pharmacological treatment for a three-month period. The control group received regular treatment only. The severities of obsession, compulsion, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were assessed using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale symptom severity scale following study completion only.Results: The experimental group had significantly lower symptom severities than the control group in terms of obsessions and compulsions, and the overall obsessive-compulsive score, effect size: 0.77, 0.95, and 0.78,, and 95% CI: 6.29–9.43; CI: 6.22–9.43; and CI: 12.57–18.81, respectively.Discussion: The study showed that passive music listening as an adjunctive therapy to regular treatment is an effective method to reduce obsessions and compulsions severities in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Clinical Trial Registration Number in the local registry: 21082016–6 (21 August 2016).