Alzheimer's Disease and Music Therapy

What is the relation between Alzheimer's disease and music therapy? Wondering why these terms are used together? They are used together since music therapy can help to improve certain conditions in the people with Alzheimer's disease. Music therapy is one of the recent alternative therapies used with Alzheimer's patients. It is found that a one-month music therapy program, five days a week for about 30-40 minutes helped in improving behavioral (aggression and agitation) and sleeping problems in people with Alzheimer's disease. Music therapy relaxes the body and calms the mood.

What happens during Music Therapy?

Music therapy is more safer and effective alternative therapy for Alzheimer's patients. Music therapy helps us to maintain hormonal and emotional balance. There are basically five brain chemicals that affect the mental state namely melatonin, norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin, and prolactin. It is found that after a one-month music therapy program, levels of melatonin, norepinephrine and epinephrine in Alzheimer's patients rises up significantly. Melatonin levels continued to remain high for 6 weeks even after the music therapy program had stopped. But the levels of norepinephrine and epinephrine returned to their original readings. There is no effect of music therapy on serotonin, and prolactin.

May be because of these increased levels of melatonin, the Alzheimer's patients undergoing music therapy become more active and sleep better.

How does Music Therapy work?

In elderly Alzheimer's patients whose language function had become challenging or totally lost, music therapy can serve a means of communication. Language is processed by one part of the brain while music is processed by many different parts of the brain. There are many elements involved in music, such as rhythm, pitch, melody, timbre and accent and they all are processed differently. The combination of language and music helps in activating the intact neurological pathways to a great extent.

How is Music Therapy beneficial for the people with Alzheimer's Disease?

It is found that music therapy plays an important role in improving the quality of life of people with Alzheimer's disease. Music therapy makes it easy for the persons who can't respond to experience and communicate on social, emotional and cognitive levels. Studies show that music therapy has a positive effect on either cognition or mood. Music therapy can have a calming and soothing effect on people with Alzheimer's disease.

Listening to the music that calms you down has a beneficial effect. Listening to your favorite soothing music while eating or before sleeping promotes a sense of calm and well-being. Familiar music can be more beneficial than unfamiliar music as it can evoke a more positive response. Familiar music is very well known to the brain and therefore is comforting and reassuring. Unfamiliar music requires processing and analysis by the brain, as it is unknown and therefore is less beneficial.

The type of music you listen to also matters. Slow, rhythmic, sedative music is found to be relaxing. Soft, romantic music that arouses the feelings of love is also beneficial. On the other hand high pitch music can worsen the condition and cause tension.

For those people who are in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease, music therapy is the only mean of extracting the response. Music therapy was also found effective for dementia, a condition that often accompanies Alzheimer's disease. For the people with dementia, music therapy is considered to be a successful intervention. People with dementia who undergo music therapy show tremendous improvement in physical movements and vocal activities. Change in their facial expression is also observed along with an increased eye contact.