Theory of Music and its Effects on Health and Wellness

Therapeutic use of music is also extremely effective at reducing the everyday aches and pains that humans experience. Slow and methodical music slows the brain waves and helps the muscles in our body to relax, reducing muscle pain (Coleman). A significant amount of today’s population also experiences depression in some shape way or form and music therapy has been proven to be one of the most successful ways to help patients cope with depression. “Individual music therapy combined with standard care is extremely effective for lowering [depression] among working age people,” says Professor Christian Gold at the University of British Columbia (Paddock). “Music therapy is so effective because it allows patients to express their feelings in a safe way,” mentions Elizabeth Fawcett (MT-BC) (Peach). Hospital patients experienced consistently shorter and more pleasant stays when undergoing music therapy along with traditional treatment (Meyer).

“The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) defines music therapy as ‘an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals’” (Barnett & Shale, 2013, p.48). Music Therapy (MT) is shown to be able to help people with many different kinds of mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and minor cases of depression. There have been many studies done showing that MT is an effective form of therapy that can improve someone’s overall Quality Of Life (QOL). MT is known as an alternative technique therapy. It is often used instead of, or along with, medication to produce a result in the patience who need it. MT involves all aspects of the music process, including listening to, writing, singing, and analyzing music. Overall MT addresses physical and emotional problems and is used to enhance the life and health of the patient. This review is simply to inform readers of the effects music and MT has on mental health, specifically:

Due to the extensive procedures surrounding treatment, patients often experience a variety of physical and psychological symptoms and side effects that negatively impact their quality of life and ability to cope with and manage an illness. Providing a choice of music during a receptive music therapy session may not only distract the patient from negative affective states, but also may provide a sense of autonomy and control over a patient 's immediate environment. The purpose of the essay was to determine whether receptive music therapy can improve two general dimensions of emotional experience and pain in a single session for patients. The guiding research question was: Will participants experience improved positive affect following a music therapy session? In my opinion ,I think the answer is yes. music therapy definitely have a positive effect on patients.

Journal and articles on the effect of music of anxiety and depressed patients were reviewed.

Music has therapeutic effects such as improving mental health and wellbeing, physical health and behaviours. This paper focuses on the therapeutic effect of music on mental health and wellbeing. Music has been used to help reduce stress (Labbe et al., 2007). When the listeners reduce stress by listening to music, they are able to relax themselves and calm down. Rentfrow et al. (2011) states that music has motivational effect to motivate the listeners. It was believed that music could be used to assist listeners in encountering hardships. Music could also arouse the emotions and feelings of the listeners (Labbe et al., 2007). To exemplify this, music elevates the listeners’ mood and providing rewarding effect and diversion. Listeners actively engage in music listening to fulfil their emotional and social needs, enjoyment and helps enduring hardships.

One could continue to go on and on with so many historical examples of the therapeutic use of music on the human body. But from the humble beginnings of music, the art of composing has continued to grow drastically over time. Today there is much research and data proving scientifically that music is even more recognized for its benefits and even detriment on the physiological and psychological systems of the body (Cook). Research recently, after about 250 years of separation, is once again uniting medicine, health psychology and

Throughout my research, I have analyzed music therapy and the effects this can have with individuals who have depression, anxiety, autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s and many other mental illnesses that are rampant in our society. Music therapy is used to soothe an individual and create a relaxing environment.

Music has many affects on the brain. Music is known to reduce anxiety. Many people use music as an outlet for stress. Also, music has the capability to change a person’s mood. Typically, when people listen to happy music they are put into a better mood. Music therapists use this strategy

The participants totally 18 patients were divided in to two groups of nine. One group received comprehensive rehabilitation treatment and an additional music therapy treatment. This group participated in a total of eight music therapy sessions, two sessions per week for four weeks. The other nine patients in the control group did not receive music therapy. Each session were 40-minutes consisting of a hello song and sharing of events in their lives for a period of 5 minutes, planned musical activities for 30 minutes, and a sharing of feelings and goodbye song for 5 minutes. Patients were encouraged to sing and improvise. Tests aimed to assess depression and anxiety were given to both groups before and after the sessions. The study, found that anxiety decreased for 5 patients in the music group and depression decreased significantly in the music therapy group as well. Furthermore, 66.7% of patients and 55.6% of caregivers reported that music therapy, helps rehabilitation, and motivates. 77.8% of patients and 66.7% of their caregivers reported that music therapy had a positive psychological change. (Kim et al., 2011)

Music is a combination of melody and rhythm, it has physiological, psychological and social functional impacts on human body. In the physical level, music can stimulates the body 's autonomic nervous system, which is to regulate the heart rate, breathing rate, nerve conduction, blood pressure and endocrine. In the psychological level, music can cause human brain which is in charge of emotions and feelings do autonomic response, hence change the mood and release the anxiety. In fact, human body has certain circadian rhythm and music has its own rhythm too, when these two aspects are able to resonate, music then can affect the physiological fluctuations, thereby exert a therapeutic effect, named music therapy.

Music therapy, a clinical use of music interventions to accomplish therapeutic goals, involves a broad range of activities including playing an instrument, singing, or listening to music. Similar to occupational and physical therapy, this expressive arts therapy remedies psychological conditions, such as depression, anxiety, or hypertension to maintain the well-being of an individual. Likewise, music has been a therapeutic tool that has shown positive effects to parts of the brain including regions involved in emotion, sensation, movement, and cognition. Although music therapy is a somewhat new-found treatment, it is used prominently today. Administered by a trained therapist, this type of therapy is used in correctional facilities, nursing homes, hospices, and special education schools.

Not only does music have a positive effect, but the benefit is greater than expected. Iranian professors Amir Hooshang Mehryar, and Shahrzad Shirani Bidabadi conducted research on the effects of music therapy on OCD patients and came up with results indicating that, “For both anxiety and depression, music therapy plus standard treatment was approximately 47% more effective than standard treatment alone, indicating a large effect size.” Music therapy not only affects the patient but also beats the standard treatments that are ordinarily used on patients with depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness. If music therapy becomes a common practice and is administered to many of those who suffer mentally, patients would see a significantly positive change in their mental

According to the American Music Therapy Association (A.M.T.A.), music therapy is “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.” As a generally new and upcoming industry, music therapy is often underestimated. By incorporating different areas of the brain, music can reduce stress, ease

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.

Aside from emotions, music can also have an impact on mental illnesses like ADHD, depression, and dementia. To combat depression, Cadena states that “music therapy alleviates pain and promotes calmness by slowing the heart rate and other bodily functions” (2). It provides the patient with a means of escape from the stressful and painful ordeals of life, and can even encourage them to recover from depression. To help children with ADHD, music therapy and medications can be used conjointly. Music, Cadena affirms, “can provide a calming, sedative affect and assist a child with focusing on the task at hand” (2). In regards to dementia, a study was done to investigate the effects that music would have on people with the disease. The findings demonstrated that “mean agitation levels were significantly lower while listening to music than before listening to the music” (3).