Background: Patients who have recently received kidney transplantation are often accompanied with psychological stress such as depression and anxiety, as well as immunodeficiency owing to immunosuppressant application. Music therapy (MT) is more and more accepted in clinical practice not only to help patients relieve psychological stress, but influence their immunity. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of MT on psychological stress and immune function in the early postoperative period of renal allograft recipients.

Methods: A one-month randomized controlled trial (RCT) has been carried out comparing MT to non-music therapy (NMT) for renal allograft recipients with regular medication after they finished surgery and stayed in hospital.40 participants were randomly assigned to one of the two groups based on our inclusion and exclusion criteria. In MT group, Mozart sonata for two pianos K448 in D major (2nd movement)were given to patients for 30 minutes every night for ten consecutive days. Psychological scales (depression anxiety stress scale 21, World Health Organization Five-item Well-Being Index, Satisfaction with Life Scale) were given to patients three times (before, after and during the experiment).Peripheral immune cell subsets (T, B, NK cells) will be tested twice (before and after the experiment).

Results: Compared to NMT, he scores of negative psychological symptoms were decreased but the physical and mental health indices were increased in MT group. Absolute numbers of CD4+ T and B cells, as well as CD4/CD8 ratio, were increased in in MT group.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that music therapy is helpful torelieve the psychological stress and enhance the immune function of renal allograft recipients with regular medicationin the early postoperative period, which could provide clinical auxiliary rehabilitation therapyfor transplant patients.