What carers and family said about music therapy on behaviours of older people with dementia in residential aged care.

This study of families and care givers taking care of elderly people with dementia found that the study participants all wanted policymakers to ensure more, not less, music therapy. More funding for music therapy was determined to be important as part of ongoing care in the residential aged care context.  (Int J Older People Nurs. 2015 Jun;10(2):146-57)

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Music and emotions: from enchantment to entrainment.

Music activates a combination of emotional and motivational, motor, attention, and memory-related brain regions.  (Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2015 Mar;1337(1):212-22.)

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Familiarity with music increases walking speed in rhythmic auditory cuing.

In gait rehabilitation (e.g. after a stroke), when patients listened to familiar music during rehab, the result was a elicited faster stride velocity and less variable strides.  (Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2015 Mar;1337(1):53-61)

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Music performance anxiety in young musicians: comparison of playing classical or popular music.

Performance anxiety was high for classical musicians between 7 and 16 yrs, which decreased with experience. Performance anxiety increased with age in popular music musicians, regardless of number of performances.  (Med Probl Perform Art. 2015 Mar;30(1):30-7.)

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Conclusions: These findings suggest that MBSR, a secular meditation training program, is associated with improved depressive symptoms regardless of affiliation with a religion, sense of spirituality, trait level of mindfulness before MBSR training, sex, o

Mindfulness based stress reduction was found to decrease depression, regardless of affiliation with religion or a sense of spirituality.  (J Altern Complement Med. 2015 Feb 19.x)

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The acute effects of yoga on executive function.

This study found that the practice of yoga improved thinking ability.  (J Phys Act Health. 2013 May;10(4):488-95)

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Music therapy to reduce agitation in dementia.

Music therapy to reduce agitation in dementia.

BACKGROUND: Music therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention that aims to increase emotional wellbeing through cognitive stimulation and social interaction.
AIM AND METHOD: I aimed to investigate the efficacy of group music therapy to reduce agitation in people with dementia. To this end, I carried out a systematic review of the literature.
RESULTS: Eight articles show that music therapy is feasible for use with people with all stages of dementia. The best results involved using familiar music and a qualified group music therapist, with the optimum frequency of intervention being two to three times a week for 30-50 minutes. Control interventions such as reading and recreational activities also reduced agitation.
CONCLUSION: Music therapy should be implemented by qualified music therapists in care homes and day care units. Further research should be conducted to ascertain the most suitable music types to be used in therapy sessions. 25188964

Nurs Times. 2014 Aug 6-19;110(32-33):12-5