alzheimers-music

How listening to your favourite music could lessen the dreadful effects of dementia

A world unto itself, music speaks a universal language. Stevie Wonder memorably crooned this line in his 1977 hit song “Sir Duke.”

Additionally, a recent study found that music can encourage dementia patients’ nonverbal communication. The study, which was just published in the journal Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, looks at how Musical Bridges to Memory has been able to maintain relationships between these patients and their loved ones even after they have lost the capacity to speak.

A live group performs music as part of the programme, which was created by the nonprofit Institute for Therapy Through the Arts. The intention is for the patient and their caregiver to engage in singing, dancing, or simple instrument playing as a result of the music. Even though dementia gradually erodes the mind and its memories, it doesn’t damage a person’s capacity to enjoy music until far later in the disease.

According to Dr. Borna Bonakdarpour, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, “They can process music, they can get it, they can receive it, they can respond to it, they can dance with it, they can play with it, and they can sing along with it.” It’s amazing that these parts are essentially undamaged.

Bonakdarpour and his team recruited 21 patients and their carers to participate in the Musical Bridges to Memory programme once each week for three months in order to obtain data for the study. Ten minutes before and ten minutes after each 45-minute session, they were videotaped in order to observe how the music affected them. For individuals who participated in the training, nonverbal communication greatly improved, according to the research.

The Alzheimer’s Association has approved music therapy as a non-drug method of treating dementia.

According to Sam Fazio, senior director for quality care and psychosocial research for the Alzheimer’s Association, “you’re accessing various portions of the brain that may not be affected by the disease’s symptoms.” People can sometimes still communicate themselves through song lyrics or by feeling the tune when they are unable to do it verbally.

Additionally, Bonakdarpour finds it delightful to have an option to pharmacological therapy for treating the disease’s symptoms.

“We don’t have fantastic medications,” he continued, “for some of these psychological concerns of persons with dementia.” “We have to take some medications that have side effects when we’re truly desperate. A few of them have a profound impact on the heart. Even people’s lives may be cut short by it. And wouldn’t it be amazing if you could stop utilising these harmful medications? ”

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