Music Therapy Research

A Brief Overview of Music Therapy Research

Music therapy can be used for a wide range of illnesses, cognitive problems, and emotional issues. Because of the positive reactions of music therapy patients, a large amount of music therapy research has been done to test the theories behind why, how and if music therapy actually works. While the results differ with the various applications and techniques, in general music therapy research has established that music therapy is an acceptable and legitimate health care profession.

There has been extensive music therapy research done on various areas of the health care field, and some of the most difficult patients with the most difficult to treat problems have shown improvement, if sometimes temporary, when they have been exposed to music therapy. For example, Alzheimer’s patients suffer from numerous problems such as cognitive dysfunctions, social behavior issues, and motor skill problems. In music therapy research, cognitive dysfunction in Alzheimer’s patients is treated by subjecting the patient to three different types of music therapy treatments: musically cued reminiscence, verbally cued reminiscence, and musical activity. While musically and verbally cued reminiscence did improve certain brain functions and even could increase language abilities in some patients, the most significant difference was found in patients who were exposed to musical activities. In fact, music therapy research showed that these musical activities – like using songs to promote reminiscence and discussion – actually raised patients’ cognitive testing scores.

But cognitive disabilities and illnesses are not the only health problems that can be treated successfully with music therapy. Music therapy is often used for patients who suffer from chronic pain. In the chronic pain studies, different types of pain patients were studied to see how music therapy would improve pain problems caused by various medical problems. Chronic pain patients in general are helped by music therapy because the perception of pain and the perception of music are essentially the same in terms of the way the brain perceives each sensation. Music is used to cancel out the vibrations of pain, often eliminating - or at least decreasing - the brain’s perception of the pain.

Music therapy has a very high success rate in pain patients who suffer from Parkinson’s disease, cancer, and other ongoing illnesses. But there is also a high rate of success when music is used to treat the pain of temporary pain, like the pain of labor and childbirth. In fact, music therapy research shows that when used in the labor and delivery room, music can help a laboring mother to lower her amount of pain. Cancer patients, especially children, are often exposed to music therapy treatments that involve singing; this treatment has been shown to boost the child’s immune system.

Pros and Cons of Research Statistics for Music Therapy

Research statistics for music therapy can be very difficult to interpret correctly. While there is information available about the statistics of music therapists, there are few quantitative analyses of music therapy practices. This is because music therapy is a subjective therapy. The quality of the methods used to treat illnesses and other medical conditions is not easily measured by numbers. And while researchers are able to say that certain music therapy methods definitely improve the brain functions of certain types of patients, it is almost impossible to determine statistics for music therapy of this type.

The statistics for music therapy that are available are simply not important to the average person who is looking for information on the benefits of music therapy. Statistics for music therapy generally deal with the music therapists themselves. For example, statistics show that approximately 9% of American Music Therapy Association music therapists are in private practice. While this information may be slightly helpful to someone who is actively seeking treatment, it is not helpful to those who are simply seeking information about music therapy. The same thing goes for statistics for music therapy like 65.8% of survey respondents have a bachelor’s degree in music therapy, 29.2% have a master’s degree, and 5.1% have a doctorate. Again, when a person is ready to choose a music therapist, this information will be important. But the average reader will find little encouragement in these numbers.

So how then does a person decide whether or not he or she wants to use music therapy to help with a medical problem? The best way to do this is not through statistics for music therapy, but rather through the research results themselves. Research results describe the subjective reactions music therapy patients have to different therapeutic methods. Instead of giving a number, such as 25% of this type of patient had this type of reaction to this type of treatment, research results will assess the benefits of any positive reaction from the patient.

Statistics for music therapy cannot provide important information to an interested party about how the therapy affected the music therapy patient’s life. But a study of Alzheimer’s patients who have been exposed to music activity therapies like dancing can tell that same interested party about the elevation in mood and resulting lessening of agitation in the patient. While this information is not quantitative, it is qualitative and thus provides a better understanding of music therapy as a medical treatment. The fact that music therapy can provide distraction from chronic pain resulting in decreased recognition of pain cannot be translated into statistics for music therapy, but it can give the prospective music therapy patient a good idea of what to expect from his or her therapy.