Music lessons lower anxiety, depression
Music lessons lower anxiety, depression
Study of elderly can translate to work site
To some, music therapy may be just one of a long laundry list of "alternative therapies" gaining popularity today. But as a recent study and earlier literature show, music can indeed soothe the savage beast.
In a soon-to-be-published study, a group of researchers led by Frederick Tims, PhD, MT-BC, professor and chairman of the department of music therapy at Michigan State University, demonstrated that group keyboard lessons given to older Americans significantly improved anxiety, depression, and loneliness scores — three factors that are critical in coping with stress, stimulating the immune system, and improving health.
The study was called the "Music Making and Wellness Project" for a reason: It employed the biopsychosocial model of wellness, first developed in 1969.
"It was pretty far out at the time, but now it’s pretty mainstream," says Tims.
In brief, the model posits that biological, social, and psychological factors all contribute to mind/body health and wellness. These systems work together to complement each other, he says, leading to the optimal state of well-being, or wellness.
Just what is music therapy? "It is the use of music to solve nonmusical problems — such as stress, pain, or low self-esteem," Tims explains.
Putting it to the test
In this most recent study, the subjects participated in group lessons that involved four phases:
1. Warm-up or sharing time: A social time set up after people entered a room. Everyone was recognized individually, with music playing in the background to encourage socialization and to set a comfortable atmosphere.
2. Community and team-building: The participants played pieces together, which required their cooperation.
3. Music-making and skills development: Participants were taught new skills, songs, and rhythms. "Unless you’re actually learning something, even if you are present it will not be a gratifying experience," Tims explains.
4. Structured closure to frame the experience: The teacher summarized what the group had done for the day and said goodbye, establishing a common structure for each lesson so the people would feel secure.
As indicated above, the group that took lessons had lower scores of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But that’s not all that music therapy can accomplish. "The literature has documented over the years that music does pull people together, bonding for community," notes Tims. "What we are just finding out now is how it affects the stress hormones in the body; it changes chemicals in the brain."
And it’s not restricted to older individuals. For example, college students were shown to have changing levels of beta-endorphin after just 15 minutes of music therapy.1
Another hormone, cortisol, is associated with stress. "It’s OK if it rises for a short time; but if it stays in the system for a long time, it is very strongly implicated in cardiovascular disease," says Tims. In one study, cortisol levels were reduced through music therapy.2
A role in wellness
This research convinces Tims that wellness professionals should seriously consider incorporating music therapy into their programs.
"Every study we do, we find that some of the neural endocrines are affected in a positive direction by music therapy," he says. "We think it’s because the same neuroanatomic structures are involved in the regulation of neural hormones as with stress, immune responses, and making music. We think this is the link."
How might a music therapy wellness program look? "Music lessons would be a good candidate, but I suspect the place to start would be relaxation sessions, using guided imagery and music," says Tims. (For a look at how one music therapy professional brings his program to the workplace, see story below.)
References
1. McKinney C, et al. The effect of selected classical music and spontaneous imagery on plasma beta endorphin. J Behav Med 1997; 20:85-99.
2. McKinney C, et al. Effects of guided imagery and music (GIM) therapy on mood and cortisol in healthy adults. Health Psychol 1997; 16:390-400.
[For more information, contact: Frederick Tims, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824-1043. Telephone: (517) 432-2613. E-mail: [email protected]. For more information about music therapy, you can also contact the American Music Therapy Association at (301) 589-3300, or visit its Web site: www.musictherapy.org.]
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