Role of Music Therapy in Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION

Music therapy has promising results in improving rehabilitation outcomes of patients with various neurologic disorders; however, its effectiveness in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) is not clear.

METHODS

A search that compared the effect of music therapy as rehabilitation to controls in motor and cognitive outcomes in patients with TBI was carried out. The outcome of interest were gait velocity, stride length, and cadence to determine the motor outcome. Memory and executive function were the main cognitive outcome measures assessed. Two authors independently abstracted data using a data collection form. Results from the studies were then pooled when appropriate for the meta-analysis.

RESULTS

Of 102 studies, 6 studies were identified for systematic review and meta-analysis after inclusion and exclusion criteria. The effect of music therapy had a pooled mean difference in improvement in gait velocity by 12.29 cm/second (95% confidence interval 2.31-22.27;), cadence by 7.19 steps/minute (95% confidence interval -25.35 to 39.73;), and stride length by 0.19 meters (95% confidence interval 0.13-0.12;). No serious side effects were noticed, however, one of the studies reported a decrease in memory function after music therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

Pooled results from 6 studies demonstrated statistically significant improvement in the stride length and executive function outcome in patients with TBI after music therapy rehabilitation. The improvement effect on cadence and gait velocity was not statistically significant and no significant effect of music therapy was found on memory in these patients.