The Clinical Application and Mechanism of Music Therapy (Mozart's Effect) on Epilepsy
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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01892605 |
Recruitment Status :
Completed
First Posted : July 4, 2013
Last Update Posted : July 4, 2013
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Music has a long history in healing physical and mental illness. The Mozart effect was initially reported by Rauscher, Shaw, and Ky in the journal of "Nature" in the year of 1993. They examined performance on Stanford-Binet spatial tasks immediately following either 10 minutes of listening to Mozart's sonata K.448, silence, or instruction to relax. They found the performance scores were 9 point higher in Mozart-listening group than other two groups. Later, the beneficial influence of Mozart music on parkinson's disease, epilepsy, senile dementia, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder was reported. However, the real neurophysiological mechanism of the influence remains unclear.
Epilepsy is a common disorder in the field of pediatric neurology. Although we had greatly advanced in develop of new anticonvulsant, thirty percent of patients with epilepsy have drug-resistance, which is associated with an increased risk of debilitating psychosocial consequences. In addition, the adverse effects of anticonvulsants are not uncommon. Few reports demonstrated that patients exposed to Mozart's music can significantly decrease in seizure frequencies and interictal epileptiform discharge. However, the case number of these studies was limited and the mechanisms of music therapy on epilepsy were not well known. In our recent studies, Mozart's music indeed decreased the epileptifrom discharge in the patients with epilepsy, particularly in the patients with generalized discharge and central discharge. On the basis of these encouraging results, we will try to investigate the neural mechanisms and clinical applications of music therapy in the following three years.
In the first year of our study, we use animal model to examine the possible mechanism of Mozart's effect. The aim of the second year study is investigation the effect of music on the cortical functions in the epileptic rat model. According to our previous study, Mozart's sonata K.448 was effective in reducing epileptiform discharge. On the basis of previous two-year results, the patients with epilepsy will be enrolled in the third year project to perform an individualized music therapy. In this study, we can provide an alternative therapy in the patients of epilepsy and investigate the possible biological mechanism of music effect.
Condition or disease | Intervention/treatment | Phase |
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Seizure | Behavioral: music listening | Not Applicable |
Study Type : | Interventional (Clinical Trial) |
Actual Enrollment : | 46 participants |
Allocation: | N/A |
Intervention Model: | Single Group Assignment |
Masking: | None (Open Label) |
Primary Purpose: | Treatment |
Official Title: | The Clinical Application and Mechanism of Music Therapy (Mozart's Effect) on Epilepsy |
Study Start Date : | April 2009 |
Actual Primary Completion Date : | October 2011 |
Actual Study Completion Date : | December 2011 |

Arm | Intervention/treatment |
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Experimental: music listening, no music
The clinical application and mechanism of music therapy The clinical application and mechanism of music therapy (Mozart's effect) on epilepsy (Mozart's effect) on epilepsy
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Behavioral: music listening
The treatment group listened to Mozart K.448 for eight minutes once daily before bedtime for at least six months. |
- estimate seizure recurrence rate by Kaplan-Meier estimates [ Time Frame: up to 24 months ]

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Ages Eligible for Study: | up to 18 Years (Child, Adult) |
Sexes Eligible for Study: | All |
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: | No |
Inclusion Criteria:
- children who had epileptiform discharges with first unprovoked seizure
Exclusion Criteria:
- epileptic children without epileptiform discharges

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01892605
Taiwan | |
Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital | |
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 807 |
Principal Investigator: | Lung-Chang Lin, PhD | Kaohsiung Medical University |
Publications automatically indexed to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier (NCT Number):
Responsible Party: | Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital |
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: | NCT01892605 |
Other Study ID Numbers: |
KMU-IRB-970391 |
First Posted: | July 4, 2013 Key Record Dates |
Last Update Posted: | July 4, 2013 |
Last Verified: | July 2013 |
Mozart K.448 first unprovoked seizure epileptiform discharges music therapy children |
Epilepsy Seizures Brain Diseases |
Central Nervous System Diseases Nervous System Diseases Neurologic Manifestations |