Music and Medicine

Megatrends

Ralph Spintge — 2024-01-26

In times like these it may be worth looking at phenomena which John Naisbitt named “Megatrends” in 1982, already[1].

Recently, again some researchers and consultants trying to forsee what may define our future on earth identified 12 such Megatrends...

Environmental Music Therapy (EMT) to reduce stress and anxiety with patients, caregivers, and hospital staff during the COVID pandemic

Michael Zanders — 2024-01-26

During the pandemic, there has been a heightened sense of anxiety, stress, and emotional dissonance for all those who are in the hospital environment. The purpose of this research was to study stress and anxiety and environmental stress theory by testing the effects of Environmental Music Therapy (EMT) versus no music on patients, visitors, caregivers, and hospital and medical staff. The study was a quasi-experimental, pretest and posttest design. Participants in the study were not randomized into groups. There were two experimental sessions and two control sessions over four different days (alternating weeks). The experimental sessions included live music with board certified music therapists providing the music within the hospital lobby. The two control sessions had no live music and just the typical sounds of the hospital lobby. The results show there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups on stress and anxiety. These data support EMT as an effective intervention to modulate the soundscape of the hospital milieu, thus lessening stress and anxiety for those within the hospital environment. The results have implications for future research, practice, and clinical education and training.

Music therapy as a potential treatment for overactive bladder – a contemporary review

Abigail George — 2024-01-26

Overactive bladder (OAB) is a highly prevalent syndrome of urinary urgency, frequency, and nocturia disproportionately impacting individuals with anxiety and depression. Treatment for OAB involves behavioral therapy, lifestyle modifications, pharmacotherapy, and invasive procedures. Music Therapy (MT) is an evidence-based intervention with data supporting its efficacy in improving anxiety, depression, and pain scores. MT is not part of OAB treatment protocol but may serve as a non-invasive method of improving symptoms and patient satisfaction. This narrative review aimed to analyze the current data supporting MT in urology and the psychiatric conditions comorbid with OAB to determine if MT may be explored for OAB symptom relief. A nonsystematic review of literature published in 2010 and after was performed via PubMed. We found OAB is associated with depression and anxiety, with symptoms of OAB positively correlating with severity of anxiety and depression. MT is efficacious as an adjunct therapy for anxiety and depression and patient comfort during urologic procedures. We conclude MT is a potential avenue for research in adjunctive therapies for OAB considering its efficacy in alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, and pain, as well as improving patient satisfaction. Further research is needed to investigate the utility of MT specifically on OAB.

The enigma of Tchaikovsky’s illness and death: An epistemological and historical perspective

Eva Cybulska — 2024-01-26

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), a celebrated Russian composer of ballet music, operas and symphonies died soon after conducting the premiere of his Pathétique symphony in St. Petersburg. According to some reports, he swallowed a glass of unboiled water at the time when a cholera epidemic was rife in the city. His death was attributed to ‘cholera infection’, but the contradictory and incomplete reports of his illness render such a diagnosis uncertain. A possibility of arsenic poisoning by his own hand is also explored. As suicide would have been a stigma for his family, would Tchaikovsky have chosen to cloak it in symptoms of a natural illness, as he once tried to do? There is no evidence, however, that the Pathétique was intended as his ‘suicide note’, as it has been sometimes implied. Epistemologically, the posthumous proof for arsenic poisoning is undeliverable, and the same applies to a cholera infection. Ultimately, the composer’s illness and death remain an enigma; it is for his music, not his illness, he is remembered and cherished.

Virtual Bedside Concerts: An innovative model to promote wellness through music

Enchi K. Chang — 2024-01-26

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted in widespread isolation, with hospitalized patients and healthcare workers (HCWs) bearing the physical and emotional brunt of patient loneliness. While music has well-documented therapeutic effects in reducing depression, anxiety, and stress in patients and HCWs, in-person performances were not possible during the pandemic. In response, Virtual Bedside Concerts (VBC) was created to provide interactive virtual music to patients during this time of isolation. Volunteer coordinators (VCs) work with HCWs at healthcare facilities to pair musician volunteers with interested patients. Over the first 15 months, VBC hosted 209 concerts performed by 66 volunteer musicians at 5 different healthcare facilities. Anonymous feedback surveys indicate that patients, musicians, and HCWs value the opportunity for music to complement traditional medical care and provide musical healing and a sense of community and connection. VBC has been widely successful in demonstrating how interactive virtual music may provide an unprecedented level of social. Facilitating social bonds through music has improved the rapport between HCWs and patients, supplemented traditional medical care, and brought a more humanistic experience to healthcare settings. Our framework may be used at other institutions to provide musical healing and a sense of community throughout and beyond the pandemic.

An investigation of thermal patterns in guitarists performing a musician-specific exercise program

Robert Farrugia — 2024-01-26

Several musicians suffer from musculoskeletal problems during their career. These injuries are referred to as performance-related musculoskeletal disorders (PRMDs). Through the use of exercise programs, PRMDs can be prevented. Exercise programs aim to strengthen musicians' upper limbs and supporting muscles, which can correct and improve postural control during performance and thereby prevent PRMDs. In this study, a musician-specific exercise program was carried out by guitarists. Thermal imaging was used to observe and monitor the effect of the program. Thermal data was collected from 14 guitarists who played their instrument for at least 7 hours a week. Data was gathered from the trapezius, shoulder, upper arm, forearm, wrist, and digits for a period of 20 minutes whilst the guitarists were playing. The participants followed the exercise program throughout a period of 6 weeks, after which the process of thermal data collection was performed again. While existing studies that evaluate musicians through thermal imaging mostly observe thermal asymmetries, in this work we also looked at absolute and relative temperature changes over time, both before and after the exercise program. The results show that one of the main and most consistent effects of the musician-specific exercise program was the reduction of thermal asymmetries within the shoulder region. This is indicative that the musician-specific exercise might be beneficial to avoid or reduce the effect of PRMDs in guitarists.

Keywords: infrared thermography, musculoskeletal, instrumentalist, guitarists, thermal patterns, exercise program

Music of different styles can affect welfare in pigs with different breeds

Hans-Joachim Trappe — 2024-01-26

Das Wohlergehen von Schweinen in konventionellen Haltungssystemen leidet unter dem Fehlen eines herausfordernden Umfelds. Musik als Bereicherungswerkzeug kann arttypische Verhaltensweisen verstärken und abweichende Verhaltensmuster reduzieren. Die Wirkung von Musik wurde bei Rindern, Hühnern, Pferden und Schweinen untersucht, hauptsächlich in konditionierender Hinsicht. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde untersucht, ob Musik verschiedener Stile Verhaltensmuster bei Schweinen direkt verändern kann und ob die Rasse der Schweine Effekte zeigen kann. Sechsunddreißig Ferkel (18 Pietrains, 18 Wiesenauer Minischweine) wurden in einem randomisierten Setup untersucht. Alle untersuchten Tiere wurden klassischer Musik und Heavy-Metal-Musik unterzogen. Ohne Musik verbrachte man die meiste Zeit im Liegen. Analysiert wurden mehr als 11.000 Einzelaktivitäten. Wenn die Schweine Schwermetallen ausgesetzt waren, erhöhte sich die Gesamtaktivität der Schweine und es traten neue und unerwartete, stressbedingte Verhaltensmuster auf. Der Kontakt mit klassischer Musik reduzierte stressbedingte Muster, während die Gesamtaktivität und Aufmerksamkeit der Schweine weiter erhöht wurde. Es zeigten sich signifikante Unterschiede in den Verhaltensmustern zwischen Pietrains und Minischweinen (p<0,05). Während klassische Musik sowohl bei Pietrains als auch bei Minischweinen zu mehr Aktivität führt, steigert Heavy Metal die Stressverhaltensmuster bei Minischweinen stärker (S<0,05). Die Ergebnisse liefern klare Belege für das Potenzial von Musikstilen, das Wohlbefinden von Schweinen zu verbessern oder zu verschlechtern.

REARRANGED: An opera singer’s facial cancer and life transposed Kathleen Watt

Deforia Lane — 2024-01-26

In lyrical prose, with musical allusions, clinical references, and a bit of comic relief, Rearranged follows Kathleen Watt's plunge from the operatic stage into the netherworld of hospital life—its indigenous creatures, its peculiar language, its signposts of the mysterious human condition—through the devastation of cancer, and out the other side. Kathleen was a New York opera singer at mid-career, with a steady, lucrative chorus job at the Metropolitan Opera and solo gigs elsewhere, anticipating her best year ever. Instead, a vicious bone cancer blew her plans to smithereens, along with her face. She had to let everything go. Bit by bit, through a brutal alchemy of lethal toxins, titanium screws, and infinite kindness, she discovered new arrangements for old pieces, in a life catastrophically transposed. Not only a heart-wrenching medical odyssey but also, ultimately, a joyous personal journey of transformation.