Written by: Fiona Sheahan
Edited by: Maggie Wang
From instrumental piano to pumped pop, listening to music is a therapeutic option for understanding our feelings. The restoring features of music especially assist people with Alzheimer’s disease because it helps alleviate symptoms. Ultimately, studies have shown that music therapy is a helpful solution to address individuals’ physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs.
Understanding the impact of Alzheimer’s disease helps us recognize the role of music therapy. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia that negatively affects memory, reasoning, and behavior. The greatest known risk factor is increasing age and the majority of diagnosed people with Alzheimer’s are 65 and older. The most common early sign of Alzheimer’s disease is difficulty remembering new information. After diagnosis, Alzheimer’s can progress over several years as dementia symptoms worsen (see here). Known as a major neurocognitive disorder, dementia is an umbrella term used to describe various symptoms of thinking abilities and loss of memory that interfere with everyday life. One may develop dementia due to a variety of diseases, not only Alzheimer's disease (see here).
Music therapy is an evidence-based approach that utilizes music to improve health results. Music therapy is divided into two interventions: passive and active. While passive music therapy involves listening to music, active music therapy involves playing and creating music. The key to both of these types is being attentive to the music because it can prompt past memories vividly. According to the American Music Therapy Association, there are several styles of music that are helpful to individuals with dementia. Specifically, songs from an individual’s culture and generation are most beneficial to promote the retrieval of memories (see here).
In 2018, a research team studied the effects of music therapy on cognitive functions and daily activities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. 298 patients with mild, moderate, or severe dementia participated in the study. Each level of severity was a group, which was further randomly divided into either a singing group, a lyric reading group, or a control group. These three groups participated in a sequence of tests and received different interventions for three months. Participants were tested on cognitive functions, neuropsychological symptoms, and daily living activities. From analysis, the team found that music therapy is more effective for enhancing verbal fluency and for relieving psychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress than lyric reading in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, results showed that music therapy is effective in improving memory and language ability in patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease. Additionally, patients with moderate or severe Alzheimer’s disease showed a reduction in psychiatric symptoms and caregiver distress. Despite this, music therapy did not significantly impact daily living activities in all patients with Alzheimer's disease. The results of this study indicate that music therapy is an effective alternative approach to managing Alzheimer’s disease-associated symptoms by strengthening cognitive function and mental well-being (see here).
Music therapy is a proven treatment for reducing Alzheimer’s disease symptoms and dementia symptoms. Nevertheless, music therapy is a therapeutic treatment for all because of its benefits of promoting wellness and relieving stress.
References:
Alzheimer’s Association. (n.d.). What is Alzheimer’s? Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia.
Alzheimer’s Association. (n.d.). What is Dementia? Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia.
Free Stock Photo. (n.d.). Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/
Heywood, A. L. (2023, May 1). The Benefits of Music for People with Alzheimer’s or Dementia.
Lyu, J., Zhang, J., Mu, H., Li, W., Champ, M., Xiong, Q., Gao, T., Xie, L., Jin, W., Yang, W., Cui, M., Gao, M., & Li, M. (2018). The Effects of Music Therapy on Cognition, Psychiatric Symptoms, and Activities of Daily Living in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 64(4), 1347–1358. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-18018
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