MUSIC THERAPY 

COMPILATION BY REZA GANJAVI

THURSDAY, Dec. 31 2009 (HealthDay News) -- Music therapy is used to help Alzheimer's patients remember and autistic children calm down. Now, a University of Alabama student is using her voice and guitar to comfort dying patients in hospice.

Physical and psychological tests done before and after the sessions found that music therapy decreased patient anxiety, pain and shortness of breath. More than 80 percent of the patients said the music improved their mood, as well as that of their family members, according to the study by researchers at the Cleveland Music School Settlement.

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Music is good for the heart

Fri Oct 7, 2005

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A new study shows that listening to music that has a slow or meditative tempo has a relaxing effect on people, slowing their breathing and heart rate, whereas listening to faster music with a more upbeat tempo has the opposite effect -- speeding up respiration and heart rate.

Friday May 25, 2001 5:25 PM ET

  Sights And Sounds of Nature Improve
  Pain Control

  By Alan Mozes

  NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have found that
  harnessing the sights and sounds of nature may reduce the pain patients
  experience while undergoing invasive medical procedures.

  ``Natural sounds and images, if they're the right ones in the right format, are a safe, inexpensive,
  effective way to reduce...pain and anxiety,'' according to Dr. Noah Lechtzin, a post-doctoral fellow at
  Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

New York doctor Samuel Wong has used music to help create a bridge to the outside world for his patients who suffer from brain damage and Alzheimer's disease. According to Dr. Gaynor, music (and sound in general) affects us as strongly as it does because our bodies are made up of 70 oer cent water, which is an excellent conductor for sound and vibration. We are not just listening to music, we are sensing it with the very cells of our body.... (Source: USA Weekend, USA).

  Music During Surgery May Ease Patients' Recovery

  By Merritt McKinney

  NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Hearing soothing music and encouraging words
while under  anesthesia may ease patients' recovery after surgery, results of a Swedish
study suggest.

   And women who listened to music and encouraging words during the operation
needed less pain  medication immediately after surgery and were also less likely to feel
tired when they went home from  the hospital, according to findings published in a recent issue of the
journal Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica.

 Music therapy helps Alzheimer's patients

 By Jane Vail

 NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters Health) -- A month-long course of music therapy improved
 behavior and sleeping problems in a group of Alzheimer's patients, report US researchers.
 They credit these improvements to increased levels of secretion of the hormone melatonin,
 which ``may have contributed to patients' relaxed and calm mood.''

 Since ancient times, music has been recognized as a calming agent and an antidote to stress
 and tension. The new study indicates that listening to music affects the release of powerful
 brain chemicals that can regulate mood, reduce aggression and depression, and improve
 sleep.

Children will sing in tune if they sing higher.

"when young children are given keyboard lessons for several months or years, their performance on spatial reasoning tests improves while the instruction lasts and for up to two years afterwards."

Every child has innate musical capacity. If we're not tapping in and finding ways to develop that ability, w're not doing our job" Dr. Linda P. Nelly

  Tuesday November 27, 2001 1:29 PM ET

  Brain Changes Help Deaf People Feel, Sense Music

  By John Schieszer

  SEATTLE (Reuters Health) - Deaf people undergo brain changes that allow them to perceive music in
  much the same way that hearing people do, new research suggests.

  ``It was once thought that brains were just hard-wired at birth, and particular areas of the brain always
  did one function, no matter what else happened. It turns out that, fortunately, our genes do not directly
  dictate the wiring of our brains,'' said Dr. Dean Shibata, an assistant professor of radiology at the
  University of Washington. ``I think it is very interesting that the brain is able to be plastic and able to
  adapt.''

  Mother's Voice Tops Music for Soothing Sick Child

  By Jacqueline Stenson

  SAN DIEGO (Reuters Health) - The comforting sound of a mother's voice is sweeter than music to
  the ears of very sick youngsters, research suggests.

  In a study reported here Sunday, hospitalized children requiring mechanical ventilation to breathe were
  calmer after hearing a recording of their mother's voice combined with soothing music than when they
  heard either music alone or a blank tape.

Healing touch, music, aids heart surgery patients

Fri Jul 15, 2005 6:21 PM BST

By Alison McCook

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who learned about relaxed breathing and received soothing touch and music before heart surgery were more likely to be alive 6 months after the procedure, suggesting that these additional steps help speed recovery, according to a study released today.

People who were prayed for off-site, however, fared no better after their heart procedures, according to a report in The Lancet.

Study author Dr. Mitchell W. Krucoff told Reuters Health that this study is an "early step," and researchers still have a lot to learn about how to integrate high-tech approaches to medicine with "the rest of the human being."

"This is not 'God failed the test,' or 'God passed the test,"' Krucoff, from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health. "It's way too early."