Medical Research into the Positive Effects of Music

We all know music has a powerful effect on mood and feelings of physical wellbeing. After all, this entire site, John Levine's Alphamusic, is devoted to this very subject. Today, medical practitioners and patients all over the world, use music in their anxiety and pain management programs.

Scientific attention is now being given to the clinically observable and reported experiences of patients and supporting medical professionals. Doctors, mental health specialists, scientists and health workers, as well as innovative music therapists and thanologists everywhere, are actively engaged in researching how best to use music to help patients feel better.

Meanwhile, specialist composers, such as John Levine, research and develop music deliberately aimed to help people calm down and positively affect their own health.

As you can imagine, we're energised and motivated by this growth in awareness of the gentle, yet powerfully effective role of music in health. It is especially thrilling for John Levine, who for 25 years has pursued a dream of music "designed" to help people cope better with symptoms of anxiety, pain and illness and so contribute to the healing process.

Today music therapy is used not to treat individuals, but also to enhance and assist the atmosphere in hospitals, clinics and health resorts...

Read on and discover some of the interesting observations made by medical practitioners and others who believe in the calming effects of music in healthcare environments.

Coming soon, to an (operating) theatre near you ...

"Music is being used to soothe and entertain patients, visitors and staff under a project initiated by the Royal Melbourne Hospital (Melbourne, Australia).

Musicians perform in the hospital's corridors and wards every week, bringing music to its waiting rooms as well as to cancer patients. The music they play ranges from jazz to classical and the combinations vary from duos to full bands.

The musicians are supplied by the Victoria College of the Arts, with funding from a private benefactor. Royal Melbourne's manager of events arts, Debra Adamidis, said the project started last November (2003) and there were plans to expand it. She said ... ... patients often had an apprehensive look when they walked into hospital. ... live music could "take them out of that scary mind-set and into another mind-set and improve the quality of their experience in hospital".

The music is also directed at visitors, who can be feeling highly traumatised. . Visiting consulting psychiatrist, Yvonne Greenberg said: "It makes [the hospital] feel more like part of the world, rather than existing in a vacuum." Ms Adamidis said the college, in conjunction with the hospital, was applying to the Australia Research Council for a grant to research the impact of music on the experience of waiting in hospitals.

Sarah Gleser, who works for the college's open program, said the collaboration with the hospital gave students the opportunity to diversify their experiences as performers. "They can see the value of their work; that it can bring joy to a patient."

Cardiothoracic surgeon Phillip Antippa, founder of the hospital's Corpus Medicum chamber group said: "Music serves as a distraction for patients and I think it helps people to focus in the workplace." Mr Antippa, who believes baroque music and jazz lend themselves best to the operating theatre, is raising funds to put a sound system into his theatre, which would eventually be connected to all theatres and recovery areas."

Andra Jackson
The Age, Melbourne, Australia, September 16, 2004

Anxious dental patients: can John Levine's Alphamusic help?

Can music influence patient anxiety during dental treatment? The prospect of dental surgery is never pleasurable and for some causes intense negative emotions, from low-level anxiety to almost phobic fear. Can music help reduce or even eliminate those feelings?

John Levine felt certain that Alphamusic would beneficially effect fearful dentistry patients. To prove his concept, he requested the help of Drs M. Zarow and I. Olszewska, partners in a successful Warsaw dental practice.

Setting up the Study of Anxiety in Dental Patients

The study group consisted of 200 dental patients. Half the patients (100) had "Silence of Peace" played in the background during their treatment. The remaining patients had no music playing.

Prior to testing, patients were asked to rank their level of anxiety around dental surgery, on a rising scale, where 10 represented "Very frightened". Age, gender and type of treatment were also noted.

General results

Patients who listened to Alphamusic during treatment reported a definite decrease in feelings of tension and stress, compared to their usual experience. This result applied regardless of patients' sex, age or the nature of treatment received.

The most pronounced positive effects were reported by patients who had listed themselves at the highest levels of fear.

Some patient observations after receiving dental treatment with "Silence of Peace" playing in the surgery. With music to distract them, patients reported less nervousness during dental operations. Patients felt the music created atmospheric "commonality" with their dentist. Patients reported said the music helped them feel more physically relaxed during treatment. When dental treatment was complete, patients said they felt more satisfied with all aspects of the procedure than in the past. Some patients fell asleep during their dental surgery.

Patients in the control group of one hundred, who did not have music during their treatment, did not report any specific changes to their usual responses and attitudes during dental treatment. For more information, see the Poster presentation (2 MB download), or the full research report (PDF format, 170kB)

In the course of researching and developing his music, John Levine has consulted with a wide range of specialists. Some are renowned teachers of meditation technique, such as Jacob Bloom, one of the founders of alpha relaxation theory and Robert Murphy, with his well-known course, "Mind Language".

Other consultants are engaged in studying the physical and psychological nature of hearing. Malgorzata Szurlej, psychologist, psycho-sociologist, audio-psychofonologist, is the owner of Centrum Audiopsychofonologii in Warsaw, an institute that cooperates with the Tomatis Centre in Paris (Patrick de la Rogue, MD).

The importance of Dr Alfred Tomatis in auditory research is not longer disputed. He was the first to research the relationship between ear function and how the brain interprets sound. The generally accepted medical term for this inter-relationship is the "Tomatis Effect". Malgorzata Chodak has worked at CMUJ University Hospital in Krakow. She has used John Levine's music as part of pain management strategy for patients undergoing cancer therapy. Dr Chodak is a specialist in clinical psychology, psychosomatotherapist, supervisor of European Socio-Somatoanalytic School (EEPSSA Strasbourg, France) and President of the Polish Somatotherapy Society. She currently works at CMUJ University Hospital.