Of all the sound therapies in use today, music is the most common.
Classical music is often a good choice for music therapy. Classical music can reduce heart rate, blood pressure,
pain, and anxiety.
In hospitals, it's used to alleviate pain (along with pain medication or anesthesia),
improve patients' moods and counteract depression, promote movement during physical rehabilitation, calm or sedate,
induce sleep, counteract fear, and reduce muscle tension. In nursing homes, it's used to boost the residents' level of
physical, mental, and social functioning.
You're likely to encounter classical music being used as sound therapy in a variety of situations.
Among its many applications:
- Relieving anxiety before and after surgery.
- Reducing stress in the hospital's intensive care unit.
- Relaxing infants and children.
- Reducing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.
- Breaking the cycle of pain in people with chronic pain.
- Helping stroke patients and people with Parkinson's disease walk normally.
- Helping some women in labor to forego anesthesia.
- Reducing anxiety during flexible sigmoidoscopy, an uncomfortable, 5 to 10-minute procedure in which the lower colon and rectum are examined for potentially cancerous polyps.
- Reducing stress in healthy persons.
Classical music as therapy has been extensively studied, and has yielded a host of positive results. For instance,
stroke patients who listened to music with imbedded metronome pulses for 30 minutes a day over a period of 3 weeks
were able to walk with better stride, cadence, and foot placement than patients who did not receive the treatments.
Similar improvement was seen in patients with Parkinson's disease. The researchers theorized that muscle activity
that is synchronized to auditory rhythm becomes more regular and efficient.
Music therapy has also been used successfully during childbirth in at least one set of clinical trials. The mother and
her partner were permitted to choose the type of music to be used during the various stages of labor and after delivery.
About half the women who tried the technique did not require anesthesia.
In another study, a single, 30-minute music therapy session produced a significant increase in immune system
function in 19 children being treated for cancer. A control group of 17 children who did not receive music
therapy showed no significant change.
Classical music as therapy ranges from listening to music to improvising tunes, writing songs, discussing lyrics,
performing compositions, using music and imagery, and learning through music. Because music therapy is used in so many
different ways, there is no one typical approach.
Classical music intended for relaxation should have about 70 to 80 beats per minute, similar to the heart rate. A
faster beat may create tension. It should be low in pitch, since a high pitch also fosters tension. Volume should be
kept low. High volume can cause pain.
When used to reduce anxiety, music should have a slow, steady rhythm, a low pitch, liberal orchestration, and relaxing
melodies. Instrumental selections are considered more effective than vocal music, since patients may focus on
words and their meaning rather than relaxing with the music.
By Dr. Randi Fredricks, Ph.D.
