Decreasing Delirium Through Music: A Randomized Pilot Trial.

The study was a small pilot, so it was not powered to show whether music reduces delirium. The main outcomes were feasibility and acceptability, not clinical efficacy. Patients were excluded if they had neurologic injury, chronic neurologic disease, uncorrected hearing or vision problems, intoxication or withdrawal, coma after cardiac arrest, pregnancy or nursing, or incarceration, so results may not apply to all ICU patients. The intervention stopped when patients left the ICU, so it says nothing about continuing music after transfer. Physiological stress results were not adjusted for vasopressor or inotropic drug doses, and those data were not collected continuously. Only survivors who could be reached by telephone completed acceptability surveys, so views of patients who died or could not be reached are missing. The audiobook control was poorly acceptable, which makes comparisons with music harder to interpret.

Do not conclude that music treats delirium. The differences in delirium/coma-free days and delirium severity were not statistically significant, and the study was a feasibility pilot.