AUTHOR=Dewan Monia Vanessa , Ader Miriam , Kleinbeck Tim , Dathe Anne-Kathrin , Schedlowski Manfred , Engler Harald , Felderhoff-Mueser Ursula , Bruns Nora , Kobus Susann 

TITLE=The effect of live-performed music therapy with physical contact in preterm infants on parental perceived stress and salivary cortisol levels

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1441824

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1441824

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec id="sec1"><title>Introduction</title><p>Parents of preterm infants face a stressful life event which might have long term impact on the parent–child relation as well as on the infant’s cognitive and socio-emotional development. Both music therapy (MT) and physical contact (PC) are stress-reducing interventions for parents and preterm infants on the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Meanwhile, especially close PC is considered as standard care (SC) in most NICUs. However, the effect of live performed MT with PC on parental perceived stress and cortisol levels has barely been investigated. We hypothesized that MT with PC leads to reduced stress levels and lower salivary cortisol concentrations compared to SC in parents of preterm infants during the first 4 weeks after birth.</p></sec><sec id="sec2"><title>Methods</title><p>Randomized-controlled trial enrolling the parents of 99 preterm infants (MT <italic>n</italic> = 50, SC <italic>n</italic> = 49 infants). The infants received either MT with PC or SC only. Perceived stress was measured with the perceived stress questionnaire 20 (PSQ-20) after birth and 4 weeks later. Salivary cortisol levels were obtained and measured weekly after birth for 4 weeks.</p></sec><sec id="sec3"><title>Results</title><p>Forty-two mothers and eight fathers of the intervention group (MT with PC) as well as <italic>n</italic> = 43 mothers and <italic>n</italic> = 6 fathers of the control group (SC) were enrolled. For the intervention group, salivary cortisol was reduced 4 weeks after birth [mothers 5.5 nmol/l (confidence interval (CI) 3.6–7.5); fathers 8.3 (CI 7.2–9.4)] compared to the control group [mothers 10.3 nmol/l (CI 5.4–15.3); fathers 14.8 (CI 8.9–20.7)]. Overall perceived stress scores decreased in the intervention group (mothers −17.6; fathers −12.6) and increased in the control group (mothers +6.1; fathers +21.4) over 4 weeks.</p></sec><sec id="sec4"><title>Discussion</title><p>Live-performed MT with PC in preterm infants might be an effective, non-invasive intervention to reduce parental stress and cortisol levels. Future studies should investigate the long-term effects of this intervention on the parent-infant relation as well as on the infants’ cognitive and socio-emotional development.</p></sec><sec id="sec143"><title>Clinical trial registration</title><p><ext-link xlink:href="https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00025755" ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00025755</ext-link> identifier [DRKS00025755].</p></sec>