Murottal Al Qur’an as supplementary therapy in acute ischemic stroke conservative therapy

Dodik Tugasworo¹ , Amin Husni¹ , Sumarji² , Nieke Indrawati²

Background: Murottal Al Qur’an’s reading is one way or method of reading the Qur’an which has advantages compared to listening to music because Qur’anic reading has a high spiritual and religious value. Spirituality can affect Homocystein, Interleukin-1, Interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and other inflammatory markers, but the mechanism remains unclear. The effect of spirituality and religiosity on the recovery of stroke is believed to have influence and importance because the comfort and quality of life can have a positive influence.

Methods: This research design was  Randomized Pretest-post Test Control Group Design using simple randomized sampling. The subjects were acute stroke patients with onset of less than 72 hours. Subjects were divided into intervention and control groups. The intervention was given by playing the Al Quran Juz ‘Amma murrotal through headphones for 30 minutes at 06.00 and 16.00 for 7 days. Data taken included assessment of HADS score, IL6 level, and NIHSS score before and after intervention. Other factors that influenced the clinical outcome of stroke were analyzed multivariately.

Results: The subjects obtained were 40 persons which were randomly allocated as either intervention or control group. There was a significant correlation between listening toe Quranic murrotal and anxiety HADS scores (p = 0.047). There was no significant correlation between listening to the Al Quran and depression HADS scores (p = 407). There was a significant correlation between listening to the murrotal Al Quran and improvement of serum IL6 levels (p = 0.019). There was also a significant correlation between listening the murrotal Al Quran and improvement of the NIHSS scores (p = 0.018). Logistic regression analysis was performed for listening to the murrotal Al Quran which resulted in influencing the improvement of NIHSS (OR = 7.421, p = 0.022).

Conclusion: Listening to the murrotal Al Quran can reduce anxiety and decrease serum IL6 levels in acute ischemic stroke patients. Listening to the murotal Al Quran can improve the clinical outcome of acute ischemic stroke patients by 7,421 times.