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Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Education, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht Branch, Marvdasht, Iran
Department of Behavioural Science, Institute for Research on Management and Planning, Tehran, Iran
art ic l e i nf o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 13 December 2014
Received in revised form
2 April 2015
Accepted 2 April 2015
Available online 11 April 2015
Background: Previous studies have highlighted the potential therapeutic benets of music therapy as an
adjunct to standard care, in a variety of psychiatric ailments including mood and anxiety disorders.
However, the role of music in the treatment of obsessivecompulsive disorder (OCD) have not been
investigated to date.
Methods: In a single-center, parallel-group, randomized clinical trial (NCT02314195) 30 patients with
OCD were randomly assigned to standard treatment (pharmacotherapy and cognitive-behavior therapy)
plus 12 sessions of individual music therapy (n 15) or standard treatment only (n 15) for one month.
Maudsley ObsessiveCompulsive Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Depression InventoryShort Form were administered baseline and after one month.
Results: Thirty patients completed the study. Music therapy resulted in a greater decrease in total
obsessive score (post-intervention score: music therapy standard treatment: 12.47 1.9 vs standard
treatment only: 15.1 7 1.7, po 0.001, effect size 56.7%). For subtypes, signicant between-group
differences were identied for checking (p 0.004), and slowness (p 0.019), but not for washing or
responsibility. Music therapy was signicantly more effective in reducing anxiety (post-intervention
score: music therapy standard treatment: 16.9 77.4 vs standard treatment only: 22.9 7 4.6, p o0.001,
effect size 47.0%), and depressive symptoms (post-intervention score: music therapy standard treatment: 10.8 73.8 vs standard treatment: 17.1 73.7, p o0.001, effect size 47.0%).
Limitations: Inclusion of a small sample size, lack of blinding due to the nature of the intervention, short
duration of follow-up.
Conclusion: In patients with OCD, music therapy, as an adjunct to standard care, seems to be effective in
reducing obsessions, as well as co-morbid anxiety and depressive symptoms.
& 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
Keywords:
Obsessive compulsive disorder
Music therapy/methods
Combined modality therapy
Anxiety disorders/therapy
Treatment outcome
Randomized clinical trial
1. Introduction
Often overlooked and under diagnosed, obsessivecompulsive
disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric ailment and is estimated to
affect 13% of the population at some point in their lives (Grant, 2014).
In a nation-wide survey of Iranian adults aged 18 and above, a pointprevalence of 1.8% for OCD was documented (Mohammadi et al.,
2004). Obsessions are characterized by the presence of worrisome
images, ideas, or impulses that are intrusive and unwanted, and are
n
Correspondence to: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and
Education, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht branch, Bahman-Beigi Street,
Ashoora Square, Marvdasht, Fars Province, Iran. Tel.: 98 71 43234805;
fax: 98 71 43234756.
E-mail addresses: shahrzadshirani@miau.ac.ir (S. Shirani Bidabadi),
AmirMehryar36@gmail.com (A. Mehryar).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.04.011
0165-0327/& 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.
14
(Ravizza et al., 1996). Even with cooperative patients where medication adherence is not a major obstacle, in at least one third of the
patients, treatment response remains insufcient. In the naturalistic
follow-up study of Brown Longitudinal Obsessive Compulsive Study
(BLOCS), 38% of patients receiving SSRIs at recommended doses
appraised their symptoms as minimally improved, unchanged, or
even worse (Mancebo et al., 2006). Use of psychotherapeutic techniques alongside pharmacotherapy augments treatment efcacy (Grant,
2014). However, in many clinical settings, psychotherapy is only offered to a fraction of patients and its use remains relatively low. The
BLOCS study demonstrated that less than one-fourth of OCD patients
participate in the recommended number of cognitive-behavioral
therapy sessions (Mancebo et al., 2006).
Given the shortcomings of medications and psychotherapy in the
management of OCD, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)
methods have the capacity to be used as an adjunct to standard care
and help improve patient outcomes (Sarris et al., 2012). Music therapy,
a form of CAM, is a non-invasive, safe, well-tolerated, inexpensive, and
readily available technique which has been shown to provide therapeutic benets in a wide range of psychiatric disorders including but
not limited to depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, autism, and dementia
(Lin et al., 2011). Bruscia (1998) denes music therapy as a systematic
process of intervention wherein the therapist helps the client to
promote health, using music experiences and the relationships that
develop through them as dynamic forces of change (Bruscia, 1998).
Aside from its role in inducing relaxation, music in the context of
psychiatric disorders could be viewed as a medium for non-verbal
communication between the patient and the therapist, and could be
incorporated to help patient express feelings that are not articulated
otherwise (Mssler et al., 2011).
A number of studies to date have delved into the possible therapeutic implications of music therapy in relieving anxiety, anxietyrelated disorders, and depression (Elliott et al., 2011; Erkkila et al.,
2011; Goldbeck and Ellerkamp, 2012). Despite a strong theoretical
framework, and expanded knowledge regarding the mechanistic of
music on neuropsychology, clinical evidence corroborating therapeutic implications of music therapy in the treatment of OCD is only
sparsely available. The present randomized clinical trial was thus
designed and conducted to investigate the efcacy of music therapy
as an adjunct to standard treatment, on OCD. Moreover, given the
fact that a signicant proportion of patients with OCD have other
comorbid mood or anxiety disorders, the question of whether
therapeutic benets of music could be expanded to also affect
concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms was explored.
2. Methods
2.1. Patients
Table 1
Protocol of the music therapy sessions for patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder.
First 10 min
Music
presented
Activity
30 min First
10 min
Second
10 min
Third
10 min
Epilogue
Piano soloa
The patient is asked to recall obsessional thoughts he or she tries to generally avoid that cause great anxiety for him/her. At this
stage, the patient is asked to reect on these thoughts, images, or impulses and freely express the feelings that they provoke.
The patient is asked to focus on the music lyrics, reect on them, and to express, in a few words, how the lyrics of the song relate to
his or her feelings/experiences.
The patient is asked to close his or her eyes, relax, and focus on pleasant thoughts, images, and how to achieve them.
a
b
c
Ballad
Santur soloc
The patient is asked to discuss his or her feelings during the session. The three tracks played is given to the patient. As a homework
assignment, the patient is asked to listen to the tracks following the same protocol and write down his or her feelings.
Table 2
Baseline scores for obsessivecompulsive, anxiety, and depression scales of patients
with obsessivecompulsive disorder enrolled in the randomized clinical trial.
Standard treatmentmusic
therapy (n15)
Obsessions
Checking
5.9 7 1.0
Washing
5.6 7 2.0
Slowness
4.3 7 1.0
Responsibility 5.4 7 1.3
Total score
17.6 7 2.4
Anxiety
26.7 7 9.9
Depression
16.3 7 5.6
Standard treatment
only (n 15)
p
value
6.3 7 1.1
6.0 7 1.4
3.9 7 1.0
5.17 1.1
18.17 1.7
27.2 7 3.9
21.2 7 5.4
0.235
0.541
0.368
0.365
0.489
0.866
0.022
Table 3
Comparison of the effects of music therapy added to standard treatment versus
standard treatment alone on obsessivecompulsive, anxiety, and depression scores
of patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder.
a
Follow-up score
Standard
treatmentmusic
therapy (n15)
Obsessions
Checking
3.9 7 1.0
Washing
3.5 7 2.0
Slowness
2.7 7 1.2
Responsibility 4.2 7 1.5
Total score
12.4 7 1.9
Anxiety
16.9 7 7.4
Depression
10.8 7 3.8
F
statistic
p value
Effect
size
10.06
2.73
6.24
0.62
35.36
24.18
24.02
0.004
0.110
0.019
0.430
o0.001
o0.001
o0.001
26.0%
8.0%
18.0%
2.0%
56.7%
47.0%
47.0%
Standard
treatment only
(n 15)
5.1 7 1.1
4.5 7 1.5
3.7 7 1.1
4.6 7 1.3
15.1 7 1.7
22.9 7 4.6
17.1 7 3.7
a
Adjusted Follow-up score for outcome variables calculated controlling for the
between-group differences at baseline.
15
3. Results
Thirty adult patients with the diagnosis of OCD were randomly
assigned to trial arms. All enrolled participants in both arms
completed the trial course and no patient was lost to follow up.
Age of the enrolled patients ranged from 18 to 50 years and was
comparable between the two groups. Also, the female-to-male
ratio in both groups were identical and males comprised 25% of
the studied sample (n 6).
Baseline scores for the MOCI, Beck anxiety, and Beck depression
inventories for trial arms are presented in Table 2. The overall
obsessional score, as well as scores for its four constituent
subtypes were comparable across the two groups (p 40.05 in all
tests). Additionally, baseline scores for BAI were similar between
the two groups. On the other hand, patients in the standard
treatment only arm had signicantly higher BDISF scores compared with their counterparts in the standard treatment music
therapy arm (21.2 versus 16.3, p 0.022).
16
4. Discussion
Despite a rm theoretical rationale for its medicinal use (Lin
et al., 2011; Silverman, 2008), clinical application of music for the
treatment of psychiatric illnesses have only been sparsely ticed in
the literature. In the present randomized clinical trial, we provided
preliminary evidence that receptive music therapy, incorporated
as an adjunct to the standard therapeutic module, could enhance
treatment response in adults diagnosed with OCD.
In our study of patients with the primary axis I diagnosis of
OCD, music therapy yielded signicant reductions in concurrent
anxiety and depression scores. Compared with standard treatment, music therapy was 47% more effective in reducing anxiety
and depressive scores. Previous studies have clearly shown that
OCD is often accompanied by other axis I and II disorders. In the
Brown Longitudinal Obsessive Compulsive Study (BLOCS), 293
adult patients with a primary diagnosis of OCD were followed
(Pinto et al., 2006). Indeed, it was shown that OCD is seldom an
isolated neuropsychological disorder; 91.8% of patients with OCD
were diagnosed with another axis I disorder sometime in their
lives (Pinto et al., 2006). The most common psychiatric comorbidities were mood disorders (lifetime prevalence: 74.1%), followed by
anxiety disorders (lifetime prevalence: 52.6%) (Pinto et al., 2006).
The usefulness of music therapy in the treatment of anxiety and
depression have been demonstrated. In a randomized trial of 36
children between the ages of 8 and 12 who were diagnosed with
separation anxiety disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, or specic phobias, Goldbeck and Ellerkamp (2012) showed that multimodal music therapy (including both active and receptive techniques) combined with cognitive-behavioral therapy is superior to
the usual treatment offered by the psychiatrist in terms of achieving remission; patients receiving active music therapy were two
times more likely to achieve remission (67% versus 33%). In
another randomized trial of adult patients, Erkkila et al. (2011)
looked into the potential therapeutic benets of a free improvisation and reective discussion model of music therapy in depressed
patients. Their work concluded that individual music therapy
sessions scheduled twice a week for three months results in a
greater improvement in depressive symptoms when compared
with standard care (Erkkila et al., 2011). Of note, co-morbid
anxiety was also signicantly decreased in the music intervention
arm, and improvements in the levels of general functioning were
noted (Erkkila et al., 2011). The observed effect size for depression
and anxiety were 65.0% and 49.0% (Erkkila et al., 2011), respectively which are comparable to the rates of 47.0% and 47.0% observed herein. A 2008 meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials also
provided support for the role of music therapy in the treatment of
depression. In four out of ve studies included, music therapy
Conict of interest
None to declare.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Shahla Akoochekian, MD, head of department of
psychiatry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran for providing
clinical expertise throughout this project.
17
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