Music therapy holds promise for many of those who are affected by age-related disorders. It is being recommended as an effective cure not only for memory loss, but also for working with people who have movement disorders, especially Parkinson’s.
Research at Beth Abraham Hospital shows Parkinson’s patients regained some ability to organise and perform movements that were lost due to the disease. It was also found that for such results, it is necessary that the music selected for them must evoke a response in each. To make them move physically or walk, the rhythm must be powerful and pro-active. While prescribing music, normally therapists go for such genres which are familiar to the patients, based on their taste and preference.
Normally, music therapists study such patients to ascertain their likes and dislikes in music before prescribing an appropriate music dose for them.
However, recent research by Dr. Giovanni Frisoni and his team at the national centre for Research and Care of Alzheimer’s Disease, Bersica would reveal that people suffering from dementia could be an exception to this rule, as they sometimes acquire new and even unexpected tastes – and that too all of a sudden.
As dementia is characterised by loss of reasoning abilities, language skills and memory, no reason could be attributed to this sudden transformation in them. These patients started liking those musical forms which they used to hate when they were young!
A 68 year-old lawyer who used to like only classical music in his youth, started developing an ‘ear’ for pop music, which he used to call ‘mere noise’.
A 73 year-old lady, who had developed apathy in her children also started showing interest in pop music, which her granddaughter was learning.
According to Dr. Frisoni, this change of behaviour could be due to various reasons. Primarily, this could be due to a change in one’s attitude toward novelty. For those who are above 60, pop music can be considered novel. Secondly, certain portions of the brain- in such people- could be damaged affecting their perception in pitch, timbre, rhythm and acquaintance.
Another study by neurologists at the University of California, Los Angeles (1998) reported that dementia can bring out artistic talents in people who never had them before. In that study, it was observed that patients developed artistic talents, including music and drawing, which flourished while dementia worsened. This indicated that as part of medical treatment, the dementia affected can be encouraged to learn or play a musical instrument if necessary, with the help of a therapist.
However, in working with people affected by dementia, a caution has to be exercised as certain types of music can cause agitation in them. Music can bring out both positive negative reactions. One should endeavour to play those who bring back positive results in such patients. A close observation by therapists while music is played is, therefore, an important requirement in such cases.
This Article was published in ‘AYURVEDA AND ALL’ July 2006 Pages 28, 29
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, June 2, 2021