Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy (part 5)

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“[Music therapy] is not going to change the course of the disease,” cautions Hanser, “but it will allow the person to temporarily engage and be much more capable of communicating more clearly.”
Two Types of Music Therapy
Hanser and her more than 3,200 colleagues of the American Music Therapy Association practice two types of music therapy: active and passive. Familiar and, most importantly, likable, music elicits the best responses. For example, Big Band music motivated social interaction more than making a puzzle in one 1993 study, and another study that same year found playing music of a patient’s choosing six days a week reduced his or her agitation.
Music therapists work directly with family members, caregivers, and patients to find the best music for a desired goal of dementia therapy, such as to “improve memory,” “lower agitation,” or “improve cognitive skills.” According to Tomaino, music can be used mnemonically to “retune” the brain to remember certain tasks during early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia. But in later stages, music is most helpful in maintaining motor skills. In all cases, music is known to reduce anxiety and stress while increasing attention, motivation, and focus.
Unlike passive music therapy, or simply listening to live or recorded music, active music therapy uses real instruments, such as drums, harps, harpsichords, or the voice, to engage a patient in play. Hanser once helped a man with Alzheimer’s and his wife..............read more of Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy, tomorrow

Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy (part 1)

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Hanser says that when we actively make music, as opposed to passively listening to it, we activate another part of the brain that controls balance and movement—the cerebellum—in addition to cognitive and limbic areas. “Music therapists may begin with passive listening but soon we engage the person so there’s more parts of the body involved,” she says.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s now affects more than 5.3 million Americans. For those who suffer from its progression, a number that doubles every fives years among seniors according to The National Institute on Aging, music can not only be a pleasant link to the past, but a nourishing connection to the present.
“Family members who every day see losses and degeneration first hand need some kind of hope, need to see there are ways to access the human being they loved,” says Hanser. “For a caregiver or family member to dance or sing with that person brings them much more a sense that there is [someone] within the shell the disease has caused.”
A Cross-Cultural Language
I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.
—Billy Joel
Some say math is the language of the universe, but on earth it is music. Bone flutes, jaw harps, and percussive instruments were already being used more than 30,000 years ago to express qualities of human experience. Music, like food, is central to virtually every culture on earth, and in fact might be considered a type of food for the brain. Ancient Greeks believed music’s mathematic progressions and its harmonic qualities, ratios, and scales made for a better mind, so its study was required as part of a good education.
The modern method of using music to heal, called “music therapy,” was born after World War II when physicians and nurses in veterans hospitals noticed their patients improved after listening to music. Today, more than seventy music therapy programs are accredited in the United States by the American Music Therapy Association, which defines music therapy as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship…” Whereas words are the psychotherapist’s medium, music is the medium of the music therapist, who is typically a trained musician.
“[Music therapy] is not going to change the course of the disease,” cautions Hanser, “but it will allow read more of Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy, tomorrow

Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy (part 3)

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In a small 1986 study, only music elicited a physical response from those with final-stage Alzheimer’s as measured in heart rate, breathing, eye blinking, and mouth movement. A later study that used music in palliative care found the combination of language, which is processed by one part of the brain, and music, processed by many parts of the brain, increases the chance of activating neurological pathways that language alone cannot.
“There are certain areas of the brain that are still relatively intact even as a progressive disease like Alzheimer’s takes effect,” says Suzanne Hanser, PhD, department chair of music therapy at Berklee College of Music in Boston and former program director of San Francisco’s Alzheimer’s Association. “In particular, the limbic system. And specifically, the hippocampus, which retains long-term memory and has retained emotional impact. Music triggers these long-term memories. So we see people who have not spoken in years begin to sing songs that they knew in their early teens and early adulthood.”
Hanser says that when....read more of Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy, tomorrow

Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy (part 2)

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Tomaino and other researchers have found a strong connection between the human brain’s auditory cortex and its limbic system, where emotions are processed. “This biological link makes it possible for sound to be processed almost immediately by the areas of the brain that are associated with long-term memory and the emotions,” she says.
The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function was founded on Tomaino’s observations, together with those of noted neurologist and colleague Dr. Oliver Sacks and others, that many people with neurological damage learned to move better, remember more, and even regain speech through listening to and playing music. In numerous clinical studies of older adults with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, familiar and likable music, not medication, has reduced depression; lessened agitation increased sociability, movement, and cognitive ability; and decreased problem behaviors.
In a small 1986 study, only music elicited a physical response from those with.....read more of Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy, tomorrow

Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy (part 1)

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The man had not spoken in three or four years. An older man in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, he could no longer care for himself and required a high level of assistance in his daily activities of living.
But on one particular day, Concetta Tomaino, DA, a certified music therapist, offered a different kind of dementia therapy—she sang an old Yiddish song to him and some of her other patients. “You could tell by his face that he was watching,” recalls Tomaino. From a man in his condition, attention was a lot to ask for. “Whenever I got a chance I played this song to him and sang to him. Within a month of doing this, he was making an attempt to speak, and he eventually started singing the song himself. He also started talking again. He continued talking and lived for many years after that.”

The Brain and Music
Just how the brain and body process music remains mysterious. Tomaino, director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York, says we at least know music is processed on many levels at once.
“Why it’s so positive is that we process music with almost every part of our brain,” she says. “Music that has personal significance to someone or is connected with historical events is a strong stimulus to engage responses in people, even in late stages of dementia. Even if they’re not necessarily able to tell you what the song is, they are able to be moved and feel the associations.”
Tomaino and other researchers have found..... ..read more of Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy, tomorrow

Dementia Sufferers may Be Helped by Music Therapy

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MedInda.com

Australian researchers have revealed in a new study that dementia sufferers may be helped by music therapy.

Dr Felicity Baker, a senior lecturer from the University of Queensland (UQ) School of Music, is looking to conduct a study of 100 volunteer couples who will allow music therapists to visit their homes and show how to use music to increase communications.


"Thousands of people care for partners with dementia and take on a lot of burden, which means they are more prone to anxiety and depression," Dr Baker said. "The idea of my project is ... to tap into the memories of people with dementia as a way of sharing positive experiences and trying to maintain some level of satisfaction with the relationship."

They theorize that people whose memories are failing may be able to recall certain things if they hear a song from their youth.

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MUSIC AND QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG NURSING HOME RESIDENTS WITH DEMENTIA )PART 2)

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MARTIN GIZZI, MD, PHDCHAIRMAN, NJ NEUROSCIENCE INSTITUTE AT JFK MEDICAL CENTERPROFESSOR AND CHAIRMAN, DEPARTMENT OF NEUROSCIENCE, SETON HALL UNIVERSITYPRESIDENT, MUSIC FOR ALL SEASONS MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD

Mr. Dallow is a composer and pianistand is the co-founder of two orchestras, the New York Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra and thePhilharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey.The New Jersey Neuroscience Institute at JFK Medical Center is a comprehensive facilitydesigned exclusively for the diagnosis, treatment, and research of complex neurological andneurosurgical disorders in adults and children. Services offered at the Institute include programs in minimally-invasive and reconstructive spine surgery, peripheral nerve surgery, brain tumors,dizziness and balance disorders, epilepsy, sleep, memory problems/dementia, cerebral palsy,stroke, and spasticity and movement disorders.

As a department of Seton Hall University'sSchool of Graduate Medical Education, NJNI serves as the clinical setting for SHU's residencytraining in neurology. Martin Gizzi, MD, PhD is Professor and Chairman of Neuroscience at Seton Hall UniversitySchool of Graduate Medical Education, Chairman of the NJ Neuroscience Institute, andPresident of the Medical Advisory Board of MFAS. He holds a PhD in experimental psychology,an MD and is a board certified neurologist. He has been a prolific researcher, securing grantsfrom the National Institutes of Health and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. His research with NASA led to several experiments performed on board the space shuttle.Project design and resultsFor this project, MFAS provided live, interactive music performances at a long-term carefacility.

23 patients with diagnoses of dementia were enrolled with appropriate consent. Stafftracked the number of falls, number of times sedating medication was given and quality of lifeusing the Quality of Life in Dementia (QOLID) scale. QOLID was developed in 1988(Alexopoulos et al, 1988a,b) and has been extensively validated in populations with dementia(Brod et al, 1999; Logsdon et al, 1999 and Ready et al, 2002).

The current study used a repeated measures design, testing subjects before and after two live music performances given six weeksapart. Each set of measures was taken at two-week intervals.The principal result was a measured increase in quality of life as measured by the QOLID.Scores increased significantly following each performance, and maintained this increase for aslong as six weeks. The effect was highly significant (F (5, 105) = 4.12, p = .002).

There was atrend for the use of sedating medications to fall in the two-week period following each

performance; however, because the overall use was so low there was not a signficiant effect (F(5,105) <1, p=.84).

Similarly there was a trend of decline in the number of falls in the two-weekperiod following each performance, but the effect was not significant (F (5, 105) <1, p = .5).The results strongly support the value of live musical performances in facilities that care forpatients with dementia and speak directly to the mission of Music For All Seasons.

The non-significant trends suggest that larger studies would be helpful in documenting decreased risk anddecreased medical expenses for patients attending regular musical performances.

It is our intentto repeat the study with a larger sample and using a control population rather than a repeatedmeasures design.

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Farris C and Byers J. The effects of harp music in vascular and thoracicsurgical patients. Altern Ther Health Med 2002; 8:52-54.Boller F and Duyckaerts C. Alzheimer disease: clinical and anatomic aspects. InBehavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology. T Feinberg and M Farah (Eds), 1997, pp.521-544, McGraw-Hill, New York.Brod M, Stewar A, Sands L et al.

Conceptualization and measurement of quality of lifein dementia: The dementia quality of life instrument (DQoL). Gerontologist 1999; 39:25-35.Clark M, Lipe A and Bilbrey M.

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Depression and Parkinson’s disease: A review. Am J Psychiatry 1992;149:443-445.Gotell E, Brown S and Ekman S. Caregiver singing and background music in dementiacare. West J Nurs Res 2002; 24:195-216.Gregory D.

Music listening for maintaining attention of older adults with cognitiveimpairments. J Music Ther 2002; 39:244-264.

4Hebert M, Parlato V, Lese G et al. Survival in institutionalized patients: Influence ofdementia and loss of function capacities. Arch Neurol 1995; 52:469-475.Konlaan B, Bjorby N, Bygren et al.

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Examples of the use of music in clinical medicine. TidsskrNor Laegeforen 2000; 120:1186-1190.Ragneskog H, Asplund K, Kihlgren M and Norberg A.

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Remington R. Calming music and hand massage with agitated elderly. Nurs Res 2002;51:317-323.Zimmerman S, Gruber-Baldini A, Hebel J, Sloane P and Magaziner J.

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