Researchers from the Regenstrief Institute and Mayo Clinic are leading the first study to test whether exposure to music can decrease delirium in older adults who are receiving mechanical ventilation in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a hospital.

“Decreasing Delirium through Music in Critically Ill Older Adults” grant is expected to total $1.96 million over the next five years.

The study is supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Aging and National Eye Institute through a new initiative to promote research on music and health.

The Regenstrief-Mayo randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of seven days of slow-tempo classical music in reducing delirium, a form of acute brain failure, in mechanically-ventilated ICU patients age 65 and older.

Half of the 160 study participants will be exposed to slow tempo, relaxing music through noise cancellation headphones for one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. The other half of the study participants will simply be given noise cancellation headphones for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

This will enable comparison of the effects of music on delirium with simple noise cancellation.

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