A favorable overall intervention story can conceal different medication-specific patterns.
An inpatient psychiatric quality-improvement project compared periods before and after music became available. Haloperidol and olanzapine administrations declined, while lorazepam administrations rose numerically without a statistically clear change. Participants often reported the music as calming.
The project was not a randomized drug-specific trial. Staffing, patient mix and other time trends could influence prescribing, while satisfaction did not directly measure medication reduction.
Report each medication’s finding rather than generalizing the antipsychotic results to benzodiazepines. The project supports feasibility of a nonpharmacological option, but cannot establish that music replaced lorazepam, reduced every sedative exposure or prevented an individual episode of agitation or restraint.
Source: PMC7937203, supplied full-text paper. Findings are paraphrased; forensic implications are an interpretation.
Related: Lithium Toxicity, Lorazepam and Recovery: Two Treatment Processes Overlapped.