Background: Music therapy (MT) may exert beneficial preventive effects in frail elderly individuals in psychophysiological health. Objectives: One hundred and fifteen frail elderly individuals (65–89 years old) participated. Methods: Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups for a controlled crossover trial. The MT-first group participated in group sessions of 45–50 min conducted by a certified music therapist for 12 weeks, followed by a 12-week waiting period. The waiting-first group participated in the reverse order. Cognitive function was assessed by the Verbal Fluency Test (VFT) and Yamaguchi Kanji Symbol Substitution Test (YKSST). Physical function was assessed by the Timed Up and Go test (TUG). Psychophysical health was assessed by the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item version (GDS-15), General Health Questionnaire 12-item version (GHQ-12), Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) scale, and Life Space Assessment (LSA) scale. We also evaluated the outcome of MT using the Clinical Global Impressions of Improvement (CGI-I) scale. Results: After 12 weeks of MT, significant improvements were observed in TUG, GDS-15, and GHQ-12 scores. However, no improvements were noted in other scores. CGI-I scores revealed the significant benefits of MT. Conclusions: MT may improve physical function, depressive mood, and quality of life in frail elderly individuals.

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Background: It is controversial whether that “Freeze-only” strategy is superior to Fresh embryo transfer in ART patients with normal ovarian response. There are two reasons supporting a “Freeze-only” strategy. One is that frozen-thawed embryos are transferred to a more physiologically receptive endometrium. While fresh embryos are transferred to a badly affected one because of controlled-ovarian stimulations, which cause the discordant development of the endometrium, when thawed-frozen embryos are transferred in a subsequent cycle the endometrium is not affected by high estrogen levels. The other reason is the big difference in cryopreservation and stimulation techniques. Methods: We investigated the annual ART reports in Japan from 1992 to 2018, and our clinical outcomes of frozen-thawed embryo transfers and fresh embryo transfers from 2015 to 2019. This enabled the assessment of the survival rate of frozen blastocyst by Cryotop safety kit after thawing in four different clinics. We compared the outcomes of frozen embryo transfer (FroET) to fresh embryo transfer. Results: The proportion of birth in Japan in the study interval found that FroET was responsible for 86.7% of births, compared to 13.3% of births resulting from fresh embryo transfers after IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI). Clinical outcome of FroET in our clinic was significantly higher than that of fresh embryo transfer regardless of maternal age and number of collected oocytes. Average survival rate of frozen blastocyst by Cryotop safety kit after thawing in four clinics was over 95%. Conclusions: We believe that “Freeze-only high-quality blastocysts” is superior to fresh embryo transfer in terms of clinical outcome, at least when compared to historical results.