Although there is an augmenting interest for the applications of classical music in psychiatry, traditional folk music is not properly highlighted in the literature.

In this paper, we examine the possible benefits that psychiatric patients who attend music therapy in psychiatric settings may have when traditional folk music and/or classical music are used in the process of rehabilitation.

A literature search of the electronic databases was performed to identify relevant studies published before June 2015.

A meta-analysis of the existing research revealed the positive influence of passive and active music listening on different groups of neurological and psychiatric patients’ anxiety, pain, tension and stress, and a series of cognitive and emotional changes that occur due to music interventions on patients and doctors alike. A general finding from the 700 diverse retrieved articles is that classical music has a positive influence on psychiatric patients. In contrast to that, there is scarce research for traditional music in psychiatric settings.

Music has a strong influence on psychiatric patients. Future research should focus on different questions such as how the knowledge of the varieties of the different types of (folk) music can enrich the music therapy in psychiatric settings.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.