The Assessment of the Effect of Music Therapy on Stress Levels of Individuals

In the modern world, stress has been increasingly affecting individuals’ psychological and physical well-being. The most common treatment methods are antidepressants, yoga, and meditation. However, despite the existence of these methods, individuals negatively influenced by stress have been continuously augmenting. Hence, this review aimed to assess the effect of music therapy on the stress levels of individuals. Stress levels were analysed and evaluated using the most common biomarkers in the scientific literature. Data and conclusions collected from different studies, including randomised clinical trials and pilot studies, were utilised for presenting a wider range of scientific literature as well as to reach a more overarching conclusion. It was concluded that additional research for different types of music therapy, music genres, tempos, and time of exposure was required. It was also demonstrated that the scientific evidence for this topic was too limited due to the small sample size and limited contexts of stressors. Therefore, investigation of different settings, instead of only medical and educational environments, or the same research question with different sample groups were shown to be potential for future research.