Mindful Melody: Feasibility of Implementing Music Listening on an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit and Its Relation to the Use of As Needed Medications for Acute Agitation

Completed

• Conditions: Agitated; State, Acute Reaction to Stress; Agitation,Psychomotor
• Interventions: Other: Music

• Registration Number: NCT04514432
• Lead Sponsor: State University of New York - Upstate Medical University

Brief Summary

In this quality improvement project, our objectives were to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of using music as an adjunct to or replacement of pharmacological interventions for patient agitation on an inpatient psychiatric unit. We hypothesized that music availability would help to reduce agitation and reduce the amount of as-needed medications used for cases of patient agitation.

Detailed Description

The number of as-needed medications for agitation was quantified during a three month period during which patients had the option of listening to music in cases of agitation. This was compared to the number of medications needed for agitation during another 3 month period during which music was not available. The medications used were quantified using pharmacy records. Patients and nurses were surveyed to determine how effective and feasible they thought the music intervention was. The study was conducted at the SUNY Upstate University Hospital inpatient psychiatric unit, which is a 24-bed unit. 172 patients were included in the project.

Before starting to offer music, a basic training meeting was held with nursing staff to understand the purpose of the project. Patients participating had the option of selecting a preferred musical genre and they listened to music using wireless headphones. The playlists used were genre playlists automatically generated by Spotify music application. If patients did not like the song that was generated, they had an option to skip the song using their bluetooth headphone controls. Headphones were collected after 30 minutes of listening unless they were return prior to completion of the listening session.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-08-16
• Primary Completion: 2018-11-16
• Study Completion: 2018-11-16
• Status Verified: 2020-08
• Study First Submitted: 2020-08-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-08-12
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-08-12
• Study First Posted: 2020-08-17
• Last Update Posted: 2020-08-17

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 172

Inclusion Criteria

• Any patient 18 years or older admitted to the inpatient psychiatric unit

Exclusion Criteria

• Patients who did not want to listen to music or be included in the project were excluded

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
When music was available	Music	3 month period during which music was available to patients experiencing agitation

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
The number of medications used for agitation	5/18/2018 until 11/13/2018	The number of different types of medications used for agitation was quantified using pharmacy records

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Scales administered to patients	5/18/2018 until 11/13/2018	Scales administered to patients to assess the extent of the calming effect of listening to music
Scales administered to nursing staff	5/18/2018 until 11/13/2018	Scales administered to nursing to determine ease of implementation and effect on the psychiatric unit milieu

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Upstate University Hospital; 🇺🇸 Syracuse, New York, United States