Effects of music on major depression in psychiatric inpatients.

The study was to assess the effectiveness of soft music for treatment of major depressive disorder inpatients in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. A pretest-posttest with a two-group repeated measures design was used. Patients with major depressive disorder were recruited through referred by the psychiatric physicians. Subjects listened to their choice of music for 2 weeks. Depression was measured with the Zung's Depression Scale before the study and at two weekly posttests. Using repeated measures ANCOVA, music resulted in significantly better depressive scores, as well as significantly better subscores of depression compared with controls. Depression improved weekly, indicating a cumulative dose effect. The findings provide evidence for psychiatric nurses to use soft music as an empirically based intervention for depressed inpatients.