Music for a therapeutic purpose

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Music for a therapeutic purpose
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Does music therapy actually work?

• Music has been part of almost every culture and
  the way we produce music is built into our
  genetics. For years even before the advent of
  brain imaging facilities, the health care workers
  always supported music therapy as a support role,
  in strengthening relations, assisting patients to
  express their thoughts in a better way, promote
  the way one can express his emotions, and in
  improving group sessions. Now in this era, with
  advancement in medical technology along with
  several pieces of research to support this idea,
  the benefits of music on mental and physical
  health have been acknowledged widely.
• In addition to its positive effect on emotions
  and mental wellbeing, music also has been found
  to play an integral role in enhancing physical
  healing. It has been demonstrated that music
  therapy is highly effective in patients
  recovering from stroke and brain injury along
  with patients with Alzheimer's and dementia.
  Singing lyrics help the nondamaged part of their
  brain to speak out their thoughts which
  eventually treats their slurred speech. According
  to one of the studies published in a journal of
  neurology, it was concluded that music can aid
  people in recovering from a stroke with verbal
  memory and maintaining focus. Furthermore,
  depression, low mood, and other mental health
  illnesses are also relieved with music therapy.

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Does music therapy actually work?

• Though recognizing the role of music in managing
  an illness is not new, recent research is
  exploring how music affects the brain and other
  body systems measurably. The available data
  regarding music therapy helps the practitioners
  now to integrate music with medicine to augment
  healing. Another study conducted at Johns Hopkins
  found out that Parkinsons disease patients
  singing in groups showed improvement in their
  quality of life, clarity, and voice strength. The
  patients with several neurological diseases
  including Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers
  disease, epilepsy, and stroke showed significant
  benefits from using music for therapeutic
  purposes.
• As one of the renowned physicians, Dr. Alexander
  Pantelyat M.D states
• Music has been an integral part of the human
  experience as long as humanity has been around.
  Its been intuitively felt to have healing
  properties, but now we are in a position to study
  the mechanisms and optimize music-based
  interventions
• Music therapy is profoundly effective in the
  treatment of mental health illness too mainly
  depression. Initially, music was used for
  therapeutic purposes to treat post-traumatic
  stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers of World War
  2. With time, its use was incorporated in the
  treatment of depression too resulting in highly
  positive outcomes.

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How does music therapy work?

• There is authentic evidence available suggesting
  music therapy for depression and anxiety. In
  patients with depression, music reduces muscle
  tension, decreases anxiety, increases self-esteem
  and motivation along with improving interpersonal
  relationships. In treatment-resistant depression,
  ketamine infusion is used to effectively treat
  the patients. At times, it is not well tolerated
  by the patients. However, including music therapy
  with ketamine infusion, the tolerability of
  ketamine was improved.
•   
• These days, music therapy is commonly applied to
  patients going through a cardiac procedure or the
  ones recovering from a heart attack, or those
  trying to survive with heart failure or any other
  cardiovascular disorder. In one of the leading
  hospitals of the USA, Mayo Clinic, the healing
  Enhancement Program has been launched which
  offers music along with massage and relaxation
  therapies particularly for patients having heart
  surgery. Clinical reports suggest music helps
  relieve pain and anxiety.

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How does music therapy work?

• According to scientists and researchers, music
  can alleviate stress, gives a soothing coping
  mechanism, and impart a feeling of control. One
  of the clinical trials, including music therapy
  to cardiac rehabilitation proved to better
  control blood pressure and improving the mental
  and physical health of each individual as
  compared to cardiac rehabilitation alone.
• Mozart effect is one of the most highly
  broadcasted mental influences of music. In it,
  researchers observed that musicians have
  remarkable mathematical skills which lead to the
  conclusion that music enhances cognitive
  function, specifically spatial-temporal
  reasoning. Listening to music assists in
  organizing the firing of nerve cells of the
  region of the brain responsible for higher
  functions. Thus, music also acts as a warm-up
  exercise that activates selected brain cells so
  that they can work and process information
  effectively.