This Thursday, music therapy will be raising its profile as World Music Therapy Day is celebrated internationally.
The World Federation of Music Therapy (founded in 1985 in Genoa, Italy, now an international body) is organising a day to celebrate and advocate music therapy. They are hoping to increase awareness of educational programmes across the world, and influence clinical practice and research. They claim research has shown music therapy can affect many areas of humanity - mood and emotional support, physiological responses (pulse, respiration), neurophysiological functioning, pain perception, rehabilitation, speech.
Closer to home in south London, The Music Therapy Charity (MTC) funds small and large research projects covering a huge range of areas. The MTC is "a national charity dedicated to supporting the highest standards of practice, research and training in music therapy". Established in 1969 by Clive Muncaster, the MTC has become the UK’s leading charity specialising in Music Therapy Research, currently focusing on the elderly, and especially those with dementia, to improve their and their families’ lives. The field of dementia has become a key area of research for music therapy. Claire Garabedian of the University of Stirling claims - "Even when someone can no longer talk, music becomes an avenue for communication and engagement. It seems to access parts of the brain that remain unaffected by the ravages of dementia." Music has been found to trigger past memories. It can help with improving mood and stamina to complete daily tasks. Music can encourage social interactions so reducing isolation. It helps encourage physical exercise and movement. It seems that music aptitude and appreciation are skills which do not deteriorate with dementia.
The MTC’s current research focus of dementia began in 2014, after a successful project on the effectiveness and value of music therapy for students at risk of underachieving or exclusion. This project was completed in 2012, and "indicated that music therapy can reduce anxiety, increase self-esteem and diminish disruptive behaviour".
The therapeutic use of music and sound can be very effective in many cases including children on the autistic spectrum, adult offenders, teenagers with eating disorders, children with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and in some cases, it can be used instead of medication to facilitate better and quicker improvement.
Cochrane (www.cochrane.org) analyses multiple studies and papers, to provide guidance on the quality of research, and it includes many areas of music therapy research on their website. They reviewed 26 studies with 2056 participants on the results of music therapy before surgery. Preoperative anxiety can lead to physical responses including high blood pressure and heart rate, slower healing of wounds and vulnerability to infection. To counter this, sedatives are often given which can cause other problems such as breathing difficulties and interaction with anaesthetic drugs leading to longer recovery times and longer hospital stays. Some of the studies claim to show that music therapy can actually outperform the anti-anxiety drugs without the adverse side effects. Many studies seemed to show that music therapy increases antibodies important in the immunity of the mucous system. The Cochrane systematic review found that most of the trials had some weaknesses in their methods, but despite this concluded that music therapy may be a viable alternative to drugs in the reduction of anxiety prior to surgery.
The popular book by Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - provides some fascinating and thought-provoking case studies. He says: “Music can lift us out of depression or move us into tears - it is a remedy, a tonic, orange juice for the ear. But for many of my neurological patients, music is even more - it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but is a necessity.”
From Cochrane’s reviews, it is therefore evident that music therapy has a big contribution to make in many areas of health benefit, however many studies have had design flaws and funding is hard to come by, meaning that the quality of research is sometimes compromised. This is where the vital role of charities such as The Music Therapy Charity is so clear. They have committed £100,000 to support studies to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions tailored to increase the understanding of the neurological and physiological mechanisms, particularly connected with their current focus on dementia.
The MTC’s president, Nicola Benedetti MBE, the Scottish classical violinist, said that the charity’s vision “is for music therapy to be supported by a robust and credible body of evidence for its effective use in healthcare, social care and education.”
Carrie Wyncoll, Sydenham High School
