No Medication Needed: How Music Can Reduce Anxiety In Just 24 Minutes

The study showed that listening to music combined with rhythmic sound stimuli can reduce anxiety in just a few minutes, without the use of medication. The effects were greater the longer the exposure time, suggesting an accessible and complementary alternative to traditional treatments.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems in the world and affects hundreds of millions of people. In recent years, especially during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of people reporting anxiety symptoms has increased significantly.

These symptoms can vary widely, including excessive worry, a constant feeling of danger, tremors, rapid heartbeat, fear of social situations, and even intense panic attacks. In all cases, anxiety can profoundly impair quality of life, hindering social relationships, emotional well-being, and daily functioning.

Currently, the most common treatments for anxiety involve the use of medication and psychotherapy. Among the most commonly used medications are those that act on serotonin and tranquilizers known for their rapid calming effect. Although these medications can reduce symptoms, they also have important limitations.

Some can cause physical side effects, such as nausea, sexual problems, and feelings of emotional apathy. Others can lead to dependence when used for extended periods, as well as intense symptoms when stopped abruptly.

Another relevant point is that many anxiety medications take weeks to start working. During this period, the patient continues to suffer from symptoms and needs additional support. These factors cause some people to abandon treatment or hesitate to start using medication, both for fear of side effects and for the time required to see improvements.

Psychotherapy, especially cognitive-behavioral therapy, is considered an effective treatment for anxiety. It helps the patient identify negative thoughts and behavioral patterns that fuel fear and excessive worry. However, this type of therapy also presents challenges.

The first sessions can be emotionally difficult, as they require the person to confront situations or thoughts they usually avoid. Furthermore, treatment requires regular attendance and can be expensive, limiting access for many people.

Faced with these barriers, interest in complementary, more accessible, and low-cost approaches has grown. One such alternative is the use of music as a therapeutic tool. Listening to music is already widely used to improve mood and reduce negative emotions, including anxiety, across different age groups and contexts.

Previous studies have shown that music can help reduce physical signs of anxiety, such as increased blood pressure and heart rate, as well as decrease feelings of nervousness and worry.

Researchers have also observed that music can be even more effective when combined with specific rhythmic sound stimuli. One such technique involves presenting sounds with regular beats that influence brain activity.

These stimuli can help the brain enter more relaxed states, especially when used at frequencies associated with rest and calm. When the music starts more upbeat and gradually becomes slower and softer, this effect tends to be enhanced.

Based on this evidence, researchers conducted a study to test whether listening to music combined with these sound stimuli could quickly reduce anxiety without the use of medication. Participants in the study were adults with moderate levels of anxiety who were already using medication to control their symptoms.

The participants were divided into groups that listened to different types of sound: some listened only to neutral noise, while others listened to music combined with sound stimuli for different periods of time.

Before and after the intervention, participants answered questionnaires about anxiety and emotional state. The results showed that all groups that listened to music combined with sound stimuli experienced a greater reduction in anxiety and negative emotions compared to the group that listened only to neutral noise.

Furthermore, the longer the exposure to music, the greater the reduction in negative affect, indicating that the effect increases with the duration of use.

In conclusion, the study suggests that listening to music combined with rhythmic sound stimuli for just twenty-four minutes can significantly reduce anxiety. This approach does not replace traditional treatments, but it can function as a safe, accessible, and fast-acting complementary strategy, especially for people who face difficulties accessing therapy or who want drug-free alternatives.

READ MORE:

Investigating the dose-response relationship between music and anxiety reduction: A randomized clinical trial. 

Danielle K. Mullen, Tianle Peng, Lauren Stewart, Adiel Mallik, and Frank A. Russo

PLOS Ment Health 3(1): e0000355. 

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmen.0000355

Abstract:

Anxiety is one of the most frequently reported mental health conditions worldwide, yet access to effective treatments such as medication and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) remains limited due to cost, time, and potential side effects. Music-based digital therapeutics, particularly when combined with auditory beat stimulation (ABS), may offer a complementary approach to mainline anxiety treatment by offering acute relief of anxiety symptoms. Prior research suggests that music combined with ABS provides greater anxiety relief than music alone or a pink noise control. This study examined whether this advantage over pink noise could be replicated, as well as whether music with ABS demonstrated a dose-response relationship, operationalized as time spent listening, in the acute relief of anxiety among individuals with moderate trait anxiety who are taking medication to manage their symptoms. We also assessed changes in affect as a secondary outcome. A total of 1,310 participants were recruited via Prolific and completed a pre-screening survey. Of these, 144 eligible participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: 24-minute pink noise (control group), 12-minute music with ABS, 24-minute music with ABS, or 36-minute music with ABS. Anxiety and affect were measured before and after the intervention using the STICSA and PANAS, respectively. All music with ABS conditions resulted in greater reductions in anxiety and negative affect compared to the control, replicating earlier findings. The largest reduction in negative affect was observed in the 36-minute condition, which was significantly greater than reduction in the 12-minute condition, suggesting a dose-response effect. These findings support music with ABS as a possible addition to existing anxiety treatments, especially when access to common behavioral health interventions is limited. Future studies should aim to increase the generalizability of the findings and further investigate the dose-effect of music on anxiety reduction. This study was retrospectively registered on ISRCTN (ISRCTN47181782).