Intenisve care unit ICU patients are treated with several interventions (e.g., endotracheal intubation, invasive mechanical ventilation [MV], catheter interventions) that are perceived as inconvenient by the patients (Reade and Finfer, 2014). These interventions may cause physiological and psychological problems in patients, such as communication problems, pain, anxiety, agitation, and delirium (Al Sutari et al., 2014, Baumgarten and Poulsen, 2015, Kwizera et al., 2015, Mateu-Capell et al., 2019). In addition, undesirable features of the ICU environment (e.g., loud noise, lack of day/night cycle, etc.) may also contribute to these problems (Abuatiq, 2015, Gültekin et al., 2018).

Recent critical care clinical practice guidelines recommend treatment and prevention strategies for adult ICU patients by emphasizing the interaction among pain, agitation/sedation, delirium, and sleep disruption (Devlin et al., 2018). The guidelines emphasize that multi-component (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) strategies should be adopted to alleviate symptoms that negatively affect patient’s comfort; relieve delirium, pain, anxiety; and promote sleep. Pharmacological applications are not sufficiently effective for the treatment of symptoms such as agitation and delirium (Marra et al., 2021), and increase the cost of care due to their side effects (e.g., respiratory depression, withdrawal symptoms, changes in hemodynamics) (Foster, 2016, Jean et al., 2020), non-pharmacological interventions (e.g., spontaneous awakening and breathing trials, early mobilization, family involvement, music intervention, relaxation techniques) are increasingly more preferred (Marra et al., 2017, Devlin et al., 2018).

Compared to other non-pharmacological approaches, music is a non-invasive, low-cost intervention that is frequently used in health care settings shown to be effective in controlling several negative symptoms (Bradt and Dileo, 2014, Umbrello et al., 2019, de Witte et al., 2020). Studies on music interventions for ICU patients have largely focused on the effects of music on anxiety, pain, and stress response (heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate) (Ames et al., 2017, Chahal et al., 2021). There is a limited number of studies examining the effect of music on delirium (Maheshwari et al., 2016, Damshens et al., 2018, Khan et al., 2020). Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of music on the severity of delirium, the severity of pain, sedation level, and anxiety level in patients receiving MV support in the ICU.