CClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05648539Updated Apr 18, 2023

Effect of Music Therapy in Mental Subhealth (EMTMS)

An interventional study of The mini apps named "SOUL GYM" on the Wechat in Depression, Anxiety, sponsored by Jiangsu Province Nanjing Brain Hospital. Recruiting at 1 site in China. Open to participants aged 16 Years to 35 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-04-18.

Sponsored by Jiangsu Province Nanjing Brain Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Oct 2023, 3 years ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
150
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
16 Years to 35 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Mental health is increasingly at the forefront of concerns, especially since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. However, not all individuals under mental subhealth need pharmaceutical treatment. Music Therapy (MT) can make peoples gradually relax via relaxing and soothing music, and regulate individual psychological emotions through the influence of music on individuals' cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and limbic system, further improve the mood of daily tension and anxiety.

This study adopted randomized clinical trials design, with two groups of MT group and Waiting group both under mental subhealth. The MT group received music therapy and routine activities, while the Waiting group received music therapy after the therapy of MT group. Data collections were performed by trained, certified, and qualified personnel. The study aims to provide that MT is an effective intervention way to alleviate the mental subhealth state in the future.

Read the detailed description

This study is a double-blind randomized controlled trial aiming at assessing the efficacy of MT compared to Waiting group in mental subhealth. Participants will be assigned randomly (1:1) to MT group and Waiting group. All the participants will be treated with 12 sessions (3 sessions per week), 30 minutes each time, and conducted for 4 weeks. The MT group received music therapy between 1st-4th week, and the Waiting group received music therapy between 5th-8th week. Pre-MT (baseline) and post-MT (4th week), two group performed symptom assessment and voice data collection (poetry readings). The MT is mainly divided into three stages, and each stage has a topic. The topic of each stage as follow: ① physical and mental relaxation stage: learning the whole body and mind relaxation mode from breathing to muscle; ② nature imagination stage: guiding music imagination; ③ internal self-exploration: excavating the positive experience and positive potential of the listener and adopting resource orientation for psychological intervention. The purposes of the present study are to: 1) evaluate the clinical response the MT in mental subhealth. 2) further understand the possible biological mechanism underlying the efficacy of MT by analyzing alterations of acoustic features.

02

Conditions studied

  • Depression, Anxiety

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • Music Therapy
  • Depression, Anxiety
  • Acoustic features
03

In context

Depression

8,057 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,641 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 150 is above the median of 84 across 6,720 interventional studies indexed under Depression.

Browse Depression studies →

Lead sponsor

Jiangsu Province Nanjing Brain Hospital is the lead sponsor of 22 studies on the registry; 17 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
16 Years to 35 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

A total of > 5 on PHQ-9 or a total of > 5 on GAD-7

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Acute suicidal thoughts, With a severe or potentially confounding psychiatric disorder (e.g. psychosis, substance misuse).

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Triple (Participant, Investigator, Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
150 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    The clinical response of the music therapy

    To assessthe efficacy of music therapy of MT group compared to Waiting group in mental subhealth.

    Device: The mini apps named "SOUL GYM" on the Wechat

  • Experimental
    The alterations of acoustic features in the music therapy

    To understand the possible biological mechanism underlying the efficacy of music therapy by analyzing alterations of acoustic features.

    Device: The mini apps named "SOUL GYM" on the Wechat

Interventions

  • DeviceThe mini apps named "SOUL GYM" on the Wechat

    Music Therapy can make peoples gradually relax via relaxing and soothing music, and regulate individual psychological emotions through the influence of music on individuals' cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and limbic system, further improve the mood of daily tension and anxiety.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Change from baseline in depressive symptoms assessed by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; range: 0-27) at week 4.

    The total scores of these questionnaires were interpreted as follows: normal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), and severe (15-27) depression.

    Time frame: Baseline and week 4.

  2. Change from baseline in anxiety symptoms assessed by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7, range: 0-21) at week 4.

    The total scores of these questionnaires were interpreted as follows: normal (0-4), mild (5-9), moderate (10-14), and severe (15-21) anxiety.

    Time frame: Baseline and week 4.

  3. Change from baseline in insomnia symptoms assessed by the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI; range: 0-28) at week 4.

    The total scores of these questionnaires were interpreted as follows: normal (0-7), mild (8-14), moderate (15-21), and severe (22-28) insomnia.

    Time frame: Baseline and week 4.

  4. Change from baseline in perceived stress assessed by the Perceived Stress Scale-14 (PSS-14; range: 0-56) at week 4.

    The total scores of these questionnaires were interpreted as follows: normal (0-28), moderate (29-42), severe (43-56).

    Time frame: Baseline and week 4.

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University
    Nanjing, Jiangsu 210000, China
    Recruiting
08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Apr 18, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05648539
Lead sponsor
Jiangsu Province Nanjing Brain Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Dec 13, 2022
Start date
Apr 19, 2023 (estimated)
Primary completion
Oct 1, 2023 (estimated)
Completion
Oct 31, 2027 (estimated)
Last update
Apr 18, 2023

Study contacts

Yue Zhu
Contact
zhuyuemiiu@163.com
02418640297059
Fei Wang
study chair · Affiliated Nanjing Brain Hospital, Nanjing Medical University

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion