Is Music Therapy Effective For Mental Disorders?

Music Therapy is used for many reasons and can be helpful in many ways. Music has been proven to be a therapeutic service to people because it’s helped people to contain themselves and even express themselves through the music that they listen to. This treatment is beneficial to many humans because it’s a good way to help one’s emotions without any medication (American Music Therapy Association). For example, music is used to treat pain and reduce stress. In Amy Novotney’s article about music therapy, she says, “The beep of ventilators and infusion pumps, the hiss of oxygen, the whir of carts and the murmur of voices as physicians and nurses make rounds — these are the typical noises a premature infant hears spending the first days of life in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). While the sounds of such life-saving equipment are tough to mute, a new study suggests that some sounds, such as lullabies, may soothe pre-term babies and their parents, and even improve the infants' sleeping and eating patterns, while decreasing parents' stress (Pediatrics, 2013)” (Novotney). Another example of how music is a reliable therapeutic resource is for people with autism. In Catherine Ulbricht’s article, she states that “People who have autism spectrum disorders often show a heightened interest and response to music. This may

Following the developing of social sciences, everybody has started to get concerned about the issue if music is good for healthy body and mental recently. This phenomenon makes the music therapy becomes popular. Music therapy is defined as “ the therapeutic use of music as to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, promote physical rehabilitation, or enhance interpersonal communication that typically involves listening to music, singing, playing musical instruments, or composing music “ in the Merriam-Webster.com. In other words, through the activity of music people can improve physical or psychological disease that achieves cure and health.

In a setting with someone with autism spectrum disorder, music therapists make use of music as an educational tool to encourage learning. One of the purposes of music therapy for someone with autism is to provide the student with an initial assistance using melodious and rhythmic strategies, followed by fading of musical cues to assist in simplification and transfer to other learning environments. Music therapy has been proven to decrease symptoms of children with autism, and could even facilitate motivation and social interaction. Even autistic children, who rarely or never speak, can respond to music; sometimes they may even sing along. Music therapy provides a tool that can link the gap between a non-communicative child and one who can

Music and Music Therapy (M & MT) are used to reduce everyday and operational anxiety, reduce the production of the stress hormone cortisol, and even alleviate symptoms of minor depression such as thoughts of suicide, apathy, lack of concentration, and

It is surprising to realize the practice of one small therapy could impact the world in a big and positive way. Music therapy is the practice of using music to better the lives of people with motor, cognitive, and speech disabilities, along with surgical patients. This is achieved by redirecting neural networks in the brain with certain types of music selected for that specific patient. This is not a field for every musician however, only educated students who are board certified should practice music therapy for the safety for the patients. Although many people believe music therapy should not be considered a therapy, it should be considered a mainstream beneficial medical practice and used worldwide. It greatly increases the education of mentally disabled children, surgical patients have a safer option for pain reduction, and it creates employment for people who are interested in a career dealing with music.

According to Geretsegger et al. (2014), music therapy is an effective clinical intervention for a varied of medical conditions, which are profoundly supported by strong scientific evidence on their significance for mood enhancement and stress relief. The five conditions for which music therapy has been studied, backed up by good scientific evidence are; dementia, autism, sleep quality, depression and infant development.

The modern practice of music therapy, however, didn’t become widespread until the 1940s, when hospitals employed musicians to aid in the treatment of veterans (“American Music”). Today, in the United States music therapy is defined as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program.” The goals of music therapy for children with autism generally include engaging the strengths of the child to ensure that they have the skills to be successful in

From 1997 to about 2007 the number of children with autism spectrum disorder has increase from 42,517 to about 258,305 and has risen since (Reschke-Hernández, 2011). With this rise of children who have autism, the rise of music therapy has since appeared greatly. When music therapy was first documented, the music was used in both group and individual settings. It was used with those who lacked social skills, those who needed rehabilitation, for self-expression, for psychological improvement and also recreational purposes (Rescheke- Hernández, 2011). Music therapist use techniques such as improvisation music therapy, dancing and singing, speech dynamics, and rhythm to help clients with social skills, body awareness and communication skills (Rescheke- Hernández, 2011). Children who are diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder can be treated through music therapy to enhance their social skills, learning skills, and coordination.

Not only is musical therapy an extremely effective practice to use for many different issues, it is also very fast acting with long term benefits as well. Patients often experience the positive effects of therapy during or immediately following their session. The benefits are also felt long after the music has stopped, especially if sessions continue over a span of several days or weeks (Ramsay). For thousands of years, humans have relied on music therapy; it is one of the most successful and cheapest treatments available to

There are multiple ways to heal and multiple benefits that come out of healing. One of those healing methods is Music Therapy. Music Therapy has been shown to help many people of all age groups, a specific group being children with autism. It helps benefit children with autism by improving their communication and social skills. Just simply listening to music calms and puts the brain at ease. Music Therapy is beneficial to this specific group because though they may have deficits socially, they show none when it comes to musical affect. This form of therapy allows autistic children to improve those social skills in a fun and engaging way.

Music therapy is a controversial but effective form of rehabilitation on mentally handicapped people. A great amount of research has been completed on this subject. It has been proven that our brains respond to music as if it were medicine. Music therapy is not a commonly used health care, but recent studies have suggested it can have a wide range of benefits.

Music could be referred to as a universal language, for instance it has more purposeful values than just for listening and people of all ages and backgrounds enjoy interaction with it every day worldwide. Throughout this research project music will be shown to work as an effective therapy and demonstrate how interaction with it can improve quality of life in Alzheimer 's sufferers. Alzheimer 's disease is only one of many forms of dementia which causes irreversible decline of the brain. This disease not only affects the patient but their support networks of family, friends and caregivers through behavioural difficulty and communication.

    “Music, even in situations of the greatest of horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.” (Mozart). Music is pervasive in everyday life. It is used as a means of communication. It allows us to better oneself, and continues to be an outlet for creativity that is ever changing in this era. The use of music in a therapy session dates back to ancient times and has even been discovered in ancient biblical scriptures. “The National Association for Music Therapy (N.A.M.T) was established on June 2, 1950 in New York and has been the basis for Musical Therapy since and continues to allow the growth and progression of therapy” (History of Music Therapy). From the article; How Does Music Therapy Work; “At its core, music therapy is the interaction between a therapist, a client (or clients) and the use of music. “A music therapist assesses the client(s) and creates a clinical plan for treatment in conjunction with team and client goals, which in turn determines the course of clinical sessions. A music therapist works within a client-centered, goal-directed framework”(How Does Music Therapy Work?). While music in general is a great thing, there is an unlimited range for possibilities for use in therapeutic practice. Musical therapy is critical because of the mental, physical and social benefits it provides.

There are many studies that show how music therapy helps people with mood disorders. People with depression can benefit from music therapy because through music therapy they can lessen the symptoms of depression. In the studies and cases that will be mentioned we can see that music therapy is effective through methods like group therapy. It is shown that people with depression that go through music therapy are affected in a positive way.

Nowadays, in the society a lot of people get more stress from many situations and some people will have some health problems. Therefore, the music therapy will be created to diminish strain, express feeling, improve communication and treat people who have health problem. Music therapy is defined as “therapy based on engagement in musical activities: the therapeutic use of music (as to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, promote physical rehabilitation, or enhance interpersonal communication) that typically involves listening to music, singing, playing musical instruments, or composing music” in Merriam-webster.com. In the other words, it is the practice of using music or instrument helping people decrease pain, concern, stress. Moreover, music therapy can include singing, creating,