Music Therapy for Patients With Alzheimer's Disease

This study is exploring if virtual music therapy can help people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or early Alzheimer's disease (AD). You would receive two 30-minute live online music therapy sessions each week for 8 weeks, led by a certified music therapist. The researchers want to see if these sessions can improve your memory, mood, and thinking abilities. They will measure changes in your autobiographical memory (memories about your own life) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (like anxiety or agitation) to see if the therapy is helpful. The study aims to enroll 60 participants.

Study design
This is an interventional study planning to enroll 60 participants with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's disease.
What's involved
You would participate in two 30-minute virtual music therapy sessions per week for 8 weeks, for a total of 16 sessions. Assessments will be done before and after the 8-week treatment period.
Compensation
Not stated in the trial record.
Follow-up
Your memory and neuropsychiatric symptoms will be assessed at Baseline and again at Post-test Week 12.

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NCT05151562

Music Therapy for Patients With Alzheimer's Disease

Recruiting
NAAges 18–89InterventionalTreatment
Johns Hopkins University
~60 participants
Updated 2026-05-06 on ClinicalTrials.gov
What's tested:Virtual Music Therapy

At a glance

Recruiting sites
1 of 1 listed site is recruiting right now
RecruitingSuspended, closed, or not yet open
What they're measuring
Change in autobiographical memory level as assessed by Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT)
Measured over Baseline and Post-test Week 12
+1 more outcome measured
Mild Cognitive Impairment
Alzheimer Disease
1 sites across 1 states
Maryland1
  • Alexander Pantelyat, MD · PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR · Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusion

Age 18-89
Mild Cognitive Impairment (MoCA score: 18-25) or Early AD (MoCA score: 17-24)

Exclusion

Head trauma, traumatic brain injury, or concussion with loss of consciousness for \>2 minutes
Claustrophobia incompatible with MRI scanning
Medical device incompatible with MRI scanning (e.g. cardiac pacemaker, implanted cardiac defibrillator, aneurysm brain clip, inner ear implant)
Prior history as a metal worker and/or certain metallic objects in the body
  • Change in autobiographical memory level as assessed by Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT)Baseline and Post-test Week 12

    AMT is used to assess the degree of specificity of autobiographical memory. The AMT usually contains cue words of both positive and negative valence, but it is unclear whether these valences form separate factors or not. Participants are asked to generate a specific memory that happened on a particular day at least one week ago. The number of specific memories recalled on each AMT is used as the dependent variable, and a higher frequency indicates a greater autobiographical memory level. Scores are on a scale from 1 to 7, where higher scores indicate greater familiarity/imageability.

  • Change in scores on neuropsychiatric symptom level as assessed by Neuropsychiatric Inventory Questionnaire (NPI-Q) (caregivers)Baseline and Post-test Week 12

    The NPI-Q is designed to be a self-administered questionnaire completed by informants about patients for whom they care. Each of the 12 NPI-Q domains contains a survey question that reflects cardinal symptoms of that domain. The severity scale has scores ranging from 1 to 3 points (1=mild; 2=moderate; and 3=severe; total score range: 0 - 36) and the scale for assessing caregiver distress has scores ranging from 0 to 5 points (0=no distress; 1=minimal distress; 2=mild distress; 3=moderate distress; 4=severe distress; and 5=extreme distress; total score range: 0-60).