| Music
Therapy Research
Listed below are health
problems for which Music therapy which have been shown to help. For full details,
please click on the health problem.
Music
therapy and anxiety following surgery
It is well known that many
patients become stressed and anxious prior to and after surgery. However, a
report last year indicated that one means of helping reduce anxiety in
patients is to incorporate music in in the Surgical Holding Area .
In the study, one group of
patients listed to music while a second group
did not. The researchers observed that patients who listened to music while
in the Surgical Holding Area had significantly less stress and anxiety than
did those who did not listen to music. Both groups spent similar lengths of
time in the Surgical Holding Area.
The researchers concluded
that the “results strongly suggest that if music were available to all
patients in the Surgical Holding Area, most would select this option, and
they would experience less anxiety.”
Winter MJ; Paskin S; Baker T.
Music reduces stress and anxiety of patients in the surgical holding area. J
Post Anesth Nurs (UNITED STATES) Dec 1994, 9 (6) p340-3
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Music
therapy and anxiety after heart surgery.
Researchers at the Bryan Memorial Hospital, Lincoln, USA recently
investigated the influence of music therapy on mood and anxiety of patients
undergoing heart surgery.
Ninety-six patients who
underwent elective, heart bypass surgery at the cardiovascular intensive
care and progressive care units of a midwestern community hospital
participated in the study. The mean age of the patients was 67 years, with
an age range of 37 to 84 years. 68% of the patients were men and 32% were
women.
Physiological data relating
to anxiety and mood was obtained through blood pressure and heart rate as
well as additional measures including the use of Spielberger's state-trait
anxiety inventory (STAI) and the patients’ own verbal ratings of their
moods and anxiety levels was taken using a numeric
rating scale (NRS).
The patients were randomly
assigned to one of three groups: (1) music therapy, (2) music-video therapy,
or (3) scheduled rest group. All of the patients received their assigned
30-minute intervention at two episodes on the second and third days
following their operations. Thephysiologic measures of blood pressure and
heart rate were measured immediately before the intervention as well as at
ten-minute intervals throughout the intervention. Mood and anxiety were
evaluated by having the patients complete their NRS (i.e., 0 to 10) rating
of mood and anxiety immediately before and after each session. Anxiety was
also measured with the STAI. The study revealed that the patients’ mood
ratings showed significant improvement in mood among those patients who were
in the "music therapy" group after the second intervention,
however, no significant differences were reported for anxiety ratings as
measured by the NRS and state anxiety instruments. But, there were
significant main effects over time for heart rate and systolic and diastolic
blood pressure in the music therapy group , which indicated a generalized
physiologic relaxation response. Reduced anxiety and improved mood were
observed in all three groups, and the researchers noted that all of the
interventions demonstrated a generalized relaxation.
Barnason S; Zimmerman L;
Nieveen J. The effects of music interventions on anxiety in the patient
after coronary artery bypass grafting.Bryan Memorial Hospital, Lincoln, NE
68506, USA. Heart Lung (UNITED STATES) Mar-Apr 1995, 24 (2) p124-32
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Music
Therapy used to treat children with developmental delay
Music therapy is a relatively
recent development in complementary health care which is commonly used to
help children suffering from a wide range of psychological and learning
disorders. Although many paediatricians acknowledge that creating and
listening to music can be of considerable therapeutic value to children,
particularly in encouraging communication skills, until very recently there
had been no controlled studies to investigate the exact nature of any such
benefits.
Researchers at the Institute
for Music Therapy in Germany recently conducted a pilot crossover study
involving 12 children between 4 and 6.5 years of age with developmental ages
of between 1 - 3.5 years to monitor the effects of music therapy on the
children’s mental development. The children were randomly selected to one
of two groups; the children in the first group received individual music
therapy for a period of three months, and the children in the second group
were, during that period, used as a control group. But, for the subsequent
three months, the children in the second group received music therapy whilst
the children in the first group were used as controls.
The results, after the first
three months, revealed significant developmental improvements including
better hearing and speech, improved eye-hand co-ordination, and improved
communications skills in the children in the music therapy group which were
not seen in the control group. Furthermore, when the groups were reversed
for the following three months, the second group who were then receiving
music therapy were seen to catch in the those areas of development.
The researchers concluded
that ‘music therapy seems to have an effect on personal relationship,
emphasising positive benefits of active listening and performing, and this
in turn sets the context for developmental change.’ It was also suggested
that the hand-eye coordination which was required by the children when
playing music was ‘a significant role in developmental changes’.
This was a relatively small
scale study and, as the researchers themselves acknowledge ‘is best
considered as a pointer in a general direction rather than as a conclusive
statement.’ However, this research does break new ground in this field of
complementary medicine and demonstrates that music therapy may offer a very
valuable option in the treatment of developmental delay in children and will
provide a platform for more detailed investigations of the potential roles
of music therapy in childhood development.
D.Aldridge, G Gustoff and L
Neugebauer. A Pilot study of music therapy in the treatment of children with
developmental delay. Complementary Therapies in Medicine (1995)3,4,197-205.
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The
effects of music therapy on depressed older patients
Music therapy has been put
forward as a cost-effective and accessible intervention for older adults
experiencing symptoms of depression, distress, and anxiety. Researchers at
Stanford University School of Medicine, USA monitored thirty older adults
who had been diagnosed with major or minor depressive disorder. The
participants were randomly assigned to one of three eight-week conditions:
(1) a home-based programme where participants learned music listening stress
reduction techniques at weekly home visits by a music therapist; (2) a
self-administered programme where participants applied these same techniques
with moderate therapist intervention involving a weekly telephone call; or
(3) put on a waiting list and used as a control.
The results showed that the
participants in both music conditions performed significantly better than
the controls on standardized tests of depression, distress, self-esteem, and
mood. These improvements were clinically significant and, the researchers
noted that these benefits were maintained over a nine-month follow-up
period.
The researchers concluded
that there was great potential for music therapy as a beneficial
intervention especially for homebound elderly people and others who have
limited access to health care professionals.
Hanser SB; Thompson LW.
Effects of a music therapy strategy on depressed older adults. Stanford
University School of Medicine. J Gerontol (UNITED STATES) Nov 1994, 49 (6)
pP265-9
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A
comparison of music therapy and jaw relaxation on postoperative pain.
An experimental study conducted at the Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, compared the effects of jaw relaxation and music, individually
and combined, on sensory and affective pain following surgery.
Eighty four patients who had
undergone abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to four groups:
relaxation, music, a combination of relaxation and music, and control.
Interventions were taught to
the patients before their operations and used by them as soon as they were
awake and able to move following surgery. Indicators of the sensory
component of pain were sensation and the patients’ requirement for
analgeasic medications over a twenty four hour period.
Whilst the researchers
observed that none of the interventions were effective at reducing pain,
during the first movement following surgery, after keeping the taped
interventions for two postoperative days, 89% of the patients reported them
helpful for alleviation of the sensation and distress of pain.
Good M. A comparison of the
effects of jaw relaxation and music on postoperative
pain. School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
44106-4904. Nurs Res (UNITED STATES) Jan-Feb 1995, 44 (1) p52-7
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Music
therapy and pain management
Japanese researchers have
assessed the potential role of music therapy in the field of pain
management. The researchers decided to analyse the effects of music on pain
associated with having to keep a compulsory posture. Classical musics were
chosen in this study. Five healthy adult females kept a supine position for
two hours without music. Complaints, and variations of heart beat and
respiration were observed in each subject during the two hour experiment.
After five days or more, these subjects had the same experience, but this
time with music. Frequency and intensity of complaints were found to be
significantly diminished by music. Although heart rate was not changed by
music, frequency of irregular respiration was found to be significantly
decreased by the music. There was therefore a positive correlation between
frequency of irregular respiration and number of complaints in subjects kept
without music. The researchers claimed that their study demonstrated that
music is effective to relieve a pain associated with a compulsory posture
and that music may play a significant role on pain management in palliative
therapy.
Ishii C; Hagihara S;
Minamisawa R. [Effects of music on relieving pain associated with a
compulsory posture] Nihon Kango Kagakkaishi (JAPAN) Jul 1993, 13 (1) p20-7
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Music
therapy to help anxiety in patients undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopy.
Patient anxiety can negatively
affect many surgical procedures. One such procedure is flexible
sigmoidoscopy in which the patient’s anxiety can, because of the
complicated and prolonged procedure periods, potentially result in
prematurely abortion of the surgery.
Music has been recognized
through research as a safe, inexpensive, and effective nonpharmaceutical
method of inducing relaxation and so researchers at the Cherry Point Naval
Hospital, North Carolina, USA set up anexperimental study to test the
effects of music therapy on 5fifty adults scheduled for outpatient
sigmoidoscopy. The control group received standard sigmoidoscopy
protocol., whilst the patients in the experimental group received the
standard protocol with the addition of listening to music throughout the
procedure. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) measurements were performed
on all subjects before and after the sigmoidoscopy. Physiologic recordings
of heart rate and mean arterial pressure were also recorded before and
during the procedure to give objective data.
The results revealed that
those patients who listened to self-selected music tapes during the
procedure had significantly decreased STAI scores , heart rates , and
arterial pressures when compared to the control subjects. The researchers
therefore concluded that music is an effective anxiolitic (relaxing agent)
which can be beneficial for patients having to undergo flexible
sigmoidoscopy surgery.
Palakanis KC; DeNobile JW;
Sweeney WB; Blankenship CL. Effect of music therapy on state anxiety in
patients undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopy. Cherry Point Naval Hospital,
North Carolina. Dis Colon Rectum (UNITED STATES) May 1994, 37 (5) p478-81
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Music
Therapy for post-operative anxiety
Music Therapy is becoming an increasingly popular form of complementary
medicine and has been shown to be particularly helpful to alleviate stress
and anxiety in stressful environments. One recent study conducted at the Day
Surgery Unit of St Mary’s Hospital, Mequon, Wisconsin, USA investigated
the role that music therapy might play in a postoperative setting for
ambulatory patients.
Forty two ambulatory surgery
patients were assigned to either an experimental group to receive music
therapy along with the standard preoperative instructions or a control group
to receive the standard preoperative instruction alone. Heart rate, blood
pressure and respiratory rates were used as measurements of anxiety and
physical stress.
The only difference in the
two groups was that the patients in the experimental group were allowed to
listen to the music of their choice prior to surgery. The results revealed
that the patients in the experimental group showed significantly lower heart
rates compared to the patients in the control group. The experimental group
also showed greater improvements in blood pressure and respiration rate.
The researchers concluded
that music therapy offers demonstrable benefits for ambulatory surgery
patients and they recommend that the patients should be offered music as an
effective option to help alleviate postoperative anxiety.
Augustin P Hains AA. Effect
of music on ambulatory surgery patients’ postoperative anxiety. AORN 1996;
63:4,750
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Music
therapy as stress management for pre-surgical stress.
The response of the adrenal
cortex to the stress of receiving information about a surgery to be
performed the following day was studied in thirty four patients by
monitoring changes in their salivary cortisol levels .
Eighteen of those patients
were subjected to an individually selected one hour music programme, applied
immediately following receipt of the information, and the remaining sixteen
patients formed a reference group. Another ten patients, not awaiting
surgery, served as controls. Saliva was sampled before the stress and five
more samples were collected at fifteen minute intervals. The stress produced
a 50% rise in salivary cortisol within fifteen minutes. Whilst the cortisol
levels of those patients not exposed to music gradually decreased, after one
hour they were still markedly higher than the initial level. However, those
patients in the music group showed a marked reduction in salivary cortisol
level and after one hour the relative decrease was similar to that observed
in control (non-surgical) patients.
The results therefore show
that music therapy can have a significant beneficial effect on alleviating
stress levels for patients who are given distressing information about
imminent ly required surgery. The study suggests that, those in authority
should consider introducing relaxing music into the cold, silent corridors
and waiting rooms of hospitals and health clinics.
Miluk-Kolasa B; Obminski Z;
Stupnicki R; Golec L. Effects of music treatment on salivary cortisol in
patients exposed to pre-surgical stress. Dept. of Surgery, Military
Institute of Aviation Medicine, Warsaw, Poland. Exp Clin Endocrinol
(GERMANY) 1994, 102 (2) p118-20
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