The Effect of Music Therapy on Different Types of Pain, Stress, and Cardiac Function Submitted by: Mohamed T. Shembesh (1175)
What is music therapy? According to the AMTA (American Music Therapy Association), 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. Utilization of music therapy comes in many forms, music therapy intervention can be designed to 1) promote wellness, 2) manage stress, 3) alleviate pain, 4) express feelings and emotions, 5) enhance memory, 6) promote physical rehabilitation, amongst many other uses. 1 The aim of this report is to asses whether music therapy have that big of an impact on different stress related conditions, and to determine the extent of its effect on the quality of life
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Music therapy, also known as music intervention, have been proved on multiple occasions by numerous studies to have many beneficial effects on one’s health and well being from many different aspects. In this report, results from a number of studies that have been dedicated to understand and determine the extent of those beneficial effects have been gathered and discussed. Each study had its own perspective, and studied the effect of music therapy on different stressors, on different age groups and health conditions, ranging from postoperative patients to healthy college students. The first study was concerned with understanding the exact beneficial effects of music therapy on postoperative cardiac surgery patients, which showed a significant improvement in noise annoyance, blood pressure and even heart rate after the implementation of music therapy. The second study was very similar to the first one, in that they studied the effect of music therapy as an analgesic for postoperative nasal surgery patients, which showed a noticeable decrease in postoperative pain, that lead to the decreased use of oral analgesics by the patients, a reduction in BP and HR was also noticed. The third study however, was more concerned with studying the effect of music on healthy individuals, which in this case were college students that have been exposed to a specific stressor, and the results were also similar to the first and second studies, in that all subjects showed a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure, heart rate and even an increase in IgA release. The fourth and last study was different in that they presented different types of music and assessed their effects on the cardiorespiratory autonomic function, which revealed an increase in HR, BP and ventilation when fast tempo music (fast paced music) was played, and a marked reduction in all three when slow, meditative music was played. Results from all sources support the claim that music therapy in indeed a beneficial nonpharmacological approach in improving the overall quality of life
