Generality
Music therapy is a discipline based on the use of music as an educational, rehabilitative or therapeutic tool.
Music therapy can improve patients' health on several levels, making it easier to achieve treatment goals. In fact, the musical experience can influence many areas, such as cognitive functions, motor skills, emotional development, social skills and quality of life.
Music therapy can be applied to pregnancy, to school teaching or to therapy in oncological, palliative and geriatric medicine wards. Depending on the case, the ways of approaching this discipline are different and may include, for example, listening to songs, performance with instruments, free improvisation, song, dance or movement.
In school structures, music therapy is generally used for psycho-pedagogical purposes, as it can contribute to the organization of a balanced and mature personality.
Role of music in medicine
The relationship between music and body has been an object of interest since ancient times and, with the development of modern medicine, an attempt has been made to deepen the healing potential of listening or producing melodies, making use of increasingly sophisticated means (neuroscience).
Over time, the beneficial effects of music have been studied and confirmed, both on the cognitive and physiological functions of man; one of the objectives of these investigations was to indicate which diseases could benefit from the musical experience.
Today, it is known that the discipline can be successfully associated with psychiatric therapies: listening and singing can reduce, for example, the symptoms of schizophrenia and control the states of agitation associated with dementia, improving the quality of life of patients and of their family members.
Some scientific findings indicate that music therapy can help children with autism spectrum disorders by improving their skills in social interaction, verbal communication and initiating purposeful behaviors.
Music therapy can also be useful in pathologies that cause conditions of marginalization (eg aphasia, amnesia, etc.), allowing the patient to express and communicate emotions, feelings and moods through non-verbal language.Additionally, music can be used as a tool to facilitate movement and neurological rehabilitation after a stroke.
Other studies have reported the beneficial effects of music therapy on the anxiety levels of patients with severe heart and lung disease.
Finally, music has been shown to be effective in "alleviating" anxiety and pain perception, even in complex conditions, such as in patients awaiting medical procedures or surgery.
What is music therapy
Music therapy has reached a prominent position in the field of psychological interventions since the sixties.
This discipline involves the use of music, sound, rhythm and movement to facilitate and promote the achievement of various objectives, such as teaching, rehabilitation or management of the pathological condition.
Music therapy is carried out with the contribution of a qualified music therapist, who addresses a single user or a group of people in order to plan interventions useful for developing or maintaining cognitive, emotional, social or physical skills (such as motor coordination).
Specifically, to undertake a therapeutic path with patients, these operators must have psychological and medical skills, as well as having "experience in the field of music."
The methods of approach of the music therapist can be basically of two types:
- Active music therapy (playing): the interaction between music therapist and patient takes place through the direct production of sounds using the voice, musical instruments or simple objects;
- Receptive music therapy (listening): it is based on listening to musical pieces; the patient is attributed a certain activity in the perception, in the imagination and in the elaboration of the proposed melodies.
Body-music relationship
The results of scientific research aimed at understanding on which physiological mechanisms the music intervenes, have established that this is able to influence the hypothalamus-pituitary axis and the autonomic nervous system (the same that controls other involuntary functions such as digestion and heartbeat). Acting at these levels, sound would be able to modulate a series of metabolic responses.
The mental well-being experienced while listening to a piece of music, for example, would be due to the ability of the melody to activate the neural networks related to pleasure in the brain: the notes trigger the production of endorphins, which improve mood and condition the relaxation.
More recent discoveries have shown a positive role of music in metabolic recovery from stress, in gastric and intestinal motility and in reducing the level of anxiety, with a protective effect on the cardiovascular system. In some cases, scientific studies have revealed benefits already in the womb, that is, from the prenatal period.
Over the years, the beneficial effects on physical activity have been demonstrated: listening to music during training would help to increase the speed of exercises and resistance to effort, improving sports performance. This is possible thanks to the stimulation of the brain region responsible for the planning and execution of movements.
Beyond sports performance, scientific research shows that listening to music during physical exercise can help the body's coordination and motor skills.
Fields of application
As for therapy and rehabilitation, the areas of intervention of music therapy mainly concern neurology and psychiatry, with particular reference to:
- Childhood Autism;
- Tourette's syndrome;
- Mental delay;
- Motor disabilities;
- Alzheimer's disease and other dementias;
- Parkinson's disease;
- Stroke;
- Amnesia;
- Aphasia and similar speech disorders;
- Psychosis;
- Mood disturbances;
- Depressive states;
- Bipolar disorder;
- Somatoform disorders (such as chronic pain syndromes);
- Eating disorders (anorexia nervosa).
The main objectives to be pursued with music therapy include:
- Stimulate communication and allow the patient to freely express their emotions;
- Improve behavioral disturbances that are difficult to control (such as aggression, isolation or anger);
- Reduce the use of psychotropic drugs;
- Maintain or stimulate residual skills, improving the quality of life.
Music therapy during childhood
During childhood, music is able to influence the child's cognitive, linguistic, emotional and social development by stimulating certain areas of the brain.
Learning to play an instrument can facilitate learning, improves attention span, contributes to the control of emotions and the expression of creativity.
During childhood, musical activities make it more skilled in reading and recognizing words, as, by playing with two hands, the visual cortices of both cerebral hemispheres are activated. Listening also offers advantages, as the rhythm and melodies can have positive effects on concentration.
For these reasons, music therapy finds a "useful application in the treatment of dyslexia: in several cases, children engaged in playing an instrument have shown an improvement in the correctness of reading and writing and in the tests of segmentation and phonetic fusion.
In children with Down syndrome, however, music therapy can be associated with psychomotor techniques and speech therapy. This approach allows to improve the knowledge of the body, the development of perception and temporal organization, motor coordination and verbalization.
In childhood, the intervention of music therapy can also be useful in the management of autism, a pathology characterized by a qualitative impairment of social interaction, which becomes evident through abnormal non-verbal behaviors, inability to develop relationships with peers appropriate to the level development, and lack of emotional reciprocity. In these patients, the musical experience must have the objective of developing communication techniques, stimulating empathy and strengthening the expression of emotions. Music therapy therefore allows the external world to enter into communication with the autistic child, favoring the initiation of a process of openness.
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