Depressed Patients Offered Hope With Music Therapy
Main Category: DepressionAlso Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 23 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT
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A therapist may be able to use music to help some patients fight depression and improve, restore and maintain their health, states a Systematic Review from The Cochrane Library.
About 121 million people world-wide are believed to suffer from depression. This can be seen in disturbed appetite, sleep patterns and overall functioning as well as leading to low self-esteem and feelings of worthlessness and guilt. It can lead to suicide and is associated with 1 million deaths a year.
Drugs and psychotherapy are common treatments, but a group of Cochrane Researchers set out to see whether there was evidence that music therapy could deliver benefits.
After searching the international literature, they identified five studies that met their criteria. Four of these reported greater reduction in symptoms of depression among people who had been given music therapy than those who had been randomly assigned to a therapy group that did not involve music. The fifth study, however, did not find this effect.
"While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation and, if the use of music therapy is supported by future trials, we need to find out which forms have greatest effect," says lead author Anna Maratos, an Arts Therapist who works in the Central and Northwest London Foundation NHS Trust, London, UK.
"The current studies indicate that music therapy may be able to improve mood and has low drop-out rates," says Maratos.
"It is important to note that at the moment there are only a small number of relatively low quality studies in this area, and we will only be able to be confident about the effectiveness of music therapy once some high quality trials have been conducted," says Maratos.
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The latest findings from The Cochrane Library
Source: Jennifer Beal
Wiley-Blackwell
Visit our depression section for the latest news on this subject.
MLA
13 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/94836.php>
APA
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/94836.php.
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Visitor Opinions In Chronological Order (2)
What Kind Of Music?
posted by anon on 28 Jan 2008 at 10:14 pmIt's too bad the article didn't go into more detail regarding just what constituted music therapy for the purpose of this study. I find being subjected almost continually to canned "music" in airports, shops, restaurants, some gov't offices, and many other places (at ever louder volumes) and even on the street (piped into the street from stores, restaurants, etc.) not to mention the megabass sound systems blasting "music" as people drive--very depressing.
I don't want to be exposed to "music" every time I walk down a street or am in a public place or quasi-public place. I find THAT depressing. As I do being forced (in my home) to listen to someone blasting (or playing drums) "music" over 100 feet away (that's how loud it gets). I'd prefer to hear birds, the wind blowing through the trees, and since I live near the ocean, the sounds of the surf & waves. Much rather hear that then the "music" I'm so often exposed to.
Music Therapy
posted by Celestial Teapot on 3 Feb 2008 at 5:30 amI quite agree with you. Although I can only speculate, I imagine that music therapy for depressed people primarily employs musical content that tends to generate calming and pleasant emotions and would probably be highly specific to the individual.
If any generalities at all can be ventured, I would tend to think such therapy would deemphasize most content that relies heavily on loudness as a means of inducing excitation (metal and hip-hop come to mind), "abrasive" tonalities (such as idiosyncratic and/or fashionably off-key vocal styles or heavily distorted electric guitar), and lyrics that dwell on stories of loss or nihilism (I'm thinking country and western and grunge rock). Since nuanced musical expression capable of inducing the more delicate emotions is often quite dependent on the skill and training of the performer, certain genres which proudly eschew such antique virtues seem unlikely to serve.
In young people and those without musical education, self-taught or otherwise, we should consider that music affinity is often at least as much an affirmation of group identity as it is of musical content. Sadly, since maturity, education, experience and an open mind are generally required to do so, most people never come to appreciate those who are widely regarded as our most sophisticated composers, vocalists and instrumentalists who, mostly, tend to hail from the worlds of classical and jazz.
Strangely enough, it has apparently come to be thought that to be alone in silence for even a moment is something that must be prevented at all costs, and so not only must unwanted, cheap, noxious music be unceasingly played in supermarkets, elevators, stores, and on voice-mail systems, there must also be provided within view one or more television screens that cannot be turned off or down at all times - on the back of every airplane seat and at the gates, in the supermarket checkout line and supermarket cart, in the rear of taxis, and on every exercise machine at the gym; if these are not sufficient we can use our Ipods, cellphones and Blackberrys or be forced to take an unwanted part in the most vulgar, profane, trivial and puerile conversations imaginable by inconsiderate boors with cell phones.
The descent of man.
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