• Alyssa Cadwalader, Shashanna Orellano, Carla Tanguay, and Ramesh Roshan.
• 1 Trust Bridge Health, Hospice of Palm Beach County , West Palm Beach, Florida.
• J Palliat Med. 2016 Aug 1; 19 (8): 870-3.

BackgroundResearch suggests that agitation is a common symptom for hospice patients, but while studies have examined the outcomes of music therapy on the agitated behaviors of patients in other settings, none have addressed this symptom in patients with terminal illnesses.ObjectiveThe study objective was to determine whether a single session of music therapy provided by a board certified music therapist and using the entrainment principle would decrease agitation in hospice patients.DesignThis pilot study was a single-blind, pretest/posttest design. Music therapists used the principle of entrainment with live music during the treatment session.Setting/SubjectsSubjects included in the study were 77 patients at a large hospice in south Florida with documented agitation.MeasurementsAgitation was measured using the Overt Agitation Severity Scale (OASS) for 5 minutes prior to and 5 minutes following a 20 minute music therapy intervention.ResultsResults from 73 participants were analyzed with a mean difference of -5.77 points from pretest to posttest. Results indicating a decrease in agitation were statistically significant (p < 0.001) for the entire sample. Age, gender, location, and diagnosis were found to have no significant effects on the results.ConclusionsResults indicate that a single session of music therapy using the entrainment principle may be an effective treatment for hospice patients experiencing agitation.

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