TABLE 1.

Music categories connected to therapeutic aims and related clinical fields of application.

Music categories connected to therapeutic aims	Description	Clinical fields of application (examples)
Activation/Stimulation	● Moderate-fast Tempo ● Medium-high rhythmic complexity ● Melody with broad range intervals ● Medium to high frequency of harmonic variations/modulations ● Extensive instrumental ensemble ● Partial regularity	● Apathy (e.g., as a symptom of dementia) ● Negative symptoms (e.g., in psychiatric patients) ● Continuous low mood or sadness, having no motivation or interest in things (e.g., in depression as main diagnosis or associated to other illness) ● …
De-activation/Relaxing	● Slow Tempo ● Low rhythmic complexity ● Melody with restrictive range intervals ● Low frequency of harmonic variations/modulations ● Solo instrument/Reduced instrumental ensemble. ● Steady musical development	● Anxiety (as main diagnosis or associated to other illness or medical conditions) (Raglio et al., 2021c) ● Stress (associated to medical or life conditions or in work-related stress) (Raglio et al., 2020a) ● Agitation, Irritability (e.g., as symptoms of dementia or as behavioral disturbances in psychiatric/neurological patients) (Raglio et al., 2015) ● Sleep disorders (in many clinical conditions) ● …
Distractiveness (relaxing or activating)	● Presence of frequent musical variations/modulations that capture the listener’s attention (i.e., pitch, tempo, timbre, rhythmic changes, harmonic modulations, etc.) counteracting the symptoms	● Pain (chronic and acute condition) (Raglio et al., 2023) ● Obsessive compulsive disorder ● Attention disorders ● …