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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Psychological Therapy and Psychosomatics
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1366575

Musicotherapy mobile applications: What level of evidence and potential role in psychiatric care? A systematic review

Provisionally accepted
Gaëtan Leschallier De Lisle Gaëtan Leschallier De Lisle 1*Antoine Oudin Antoine Oudin 2*Alexis Bourla Alexis Bourla 1,3Florian Ferreri Florian Ferreri 4Stephane Mouchabac Stephane Mouchabac 4
  • 1 Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Paris, Paris, France
  • 2 Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, France
  • 3 Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
  • 4 Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris, Ile-de-France, France

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Context: In our times of smartphone ubiquity, mobile applications are an inescapable daily life tool, including in health care. Music therapy has already proven its worth, notably in mental health. Hence, we were interested in the mobile app format for this type of therapy, its level of evidence, how to use it in daily psychiatric care and the leads for future research and innovation.Method: This study carries out a systematic review of scientific literature of this topic on two search engines, PubMed and PubPsych, using these key-words: ((web-application) OR (web-app) OR (smartphone) OR (apps) OR (app)) AND ((music) OR (music therapy) OR (melody)).Outcome: Out of a total of 282 studies found by keyword, 31 are included in this review. Several outcomes emerge. These studies relate to existing applications like Music Care, Calm or Unwind, on application prototypes or a potential use of music streaming applications on health care. They involve many different populations and clinical situations, including in hospital environments, for patients with chronic illnesses, different age ranges or for the general population. These musical interventions show a significant effect mainly for anxious symptoms, but also for depression, sleep disorders, pain and other psychiatric or psycho-somatic syndromes. These applications have no significant adverse effects.This review shows that music therapy apps have several potentials for improving mental health care. It could assist psychiatric usual care and could potentially lower medication intake. Nevertheless, the studies on the topic are limited and recent but they open prospects for future research.

    Keywords: Alexis Bourla: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources

    Received: 08 Jan 2024; Accepted: 08 May 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Leschallier De Lisle, Oudin, Bourla, Ferreri and Mouchabac. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Gaëtan Leschallier De Lisle, Assistance Publique Hopitaux De Paris, Paris, France
    Antoine Oudin, Hôpitaux Universitaires Pitié Salpêtrière, Paris, 75651, France

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.