Musical Psychotherapy: History, Effects, and Applications

medicational Psychotherapy History, Effects, and ApplicationsSamah El SaadiAbstractWe all enjoy practice of medicine as a clear of art but we r arly take into consideration the effect of the euphony that we listen to. Music therapy is using music in a cure manner in order to recover or stabilize a mental, physical or psychological state. This review will introduce music therapy and touch modality its origins back in history, and then it will give an insight on music cerebrate neurosciences explaining what transgresss of the brain and neurotransmitters argon involved. Music fag push us on many different levels however, this review will focus on the ability of music to aid in psychotherapy. It is important to highlight that the emf power within music faeces be either constructive or destructive depending on the choice of music.Musical PsychotherapyWhat is music therapy and what argon the origins?Everyone sees music as a form of art that they enjoy playing or dancing on its rhythms as they tend to develop a mouthful to certain grammatical case of rhythms. However, seldom do people think of the impact of music on their health although through their experiences with music they would know that their favorite type of music plenty make them feel relaxed, happy or even anxious. But have you ever considered music as a form of therapy? look showed that music does have an effect on our health and it can be either positive or negative depending on the music, yet these effects are intercede through psychology and neurosciences (News in Health NIH, 2010).Music therapy is applying music as a tool in order to improve, stabilize or remodel an emotional, mental, or physical health. It is conducted by accredited music therapists who are able to skillfully use music and music elements in assessing patients, developing treatment plans, evaluating progresses and fall in in research (Music Therapy knowledge MTAO, 2010). Music therapists plan music sessions for indiv iduals or groups and whitethorn use active or passive approaches in the therapy depending on the patients need. The therapy may include listening to music, making music, talking about the lyrics or even writing songs, but definitely it is not restricted to people with musical abilities. Since music is accessible everywhere, music therapy is not limited to a outrank and sessions can be arranged at homes, hospitals, hospices, business centers or any calm place people may prefer (American Cancer Society ACS, 2008). The nonverbal emotional entity of music makes it a universal language that can ease the self-expression, personal ripening and social interactions which would aid in psychotherapy. Music can al ports have a positive impact on people whether they are ill, disabled or perfectly healthy (MTAO, 2010).The principle of therapeutic use of music is not new, ancient cultures were aware of music power which for or so was part of their traditional better practices such as the cas e of Native Americans (ACS, 2008). The musical power of healing was marked in different ethnic ancient inscriptions like that of Rome, India, China and Egypt (Music as Medicine, 2014), as it was mentioned in the writings of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Pythagoras and Plato (ACS, 2008). However the modern music therapy dates back to World War II when music was use to help in the treatment of soldiers who were suffering from shell shock, and it was in 1944 when Michigan State University initiated the first degree program in music therapy (ACS, 2008).Music related neurosciencesFor many years research was ongoing to understand the means of action of music and why it does have this strong impact on our lives. Since the impact is mediated neurologically, scientists intensively investigated the brain regions and with the help of the emerging imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) they noticed that it activates unexpected regions involved in emotion s and memory, in addition to the brains motor regions that are responsible for coordinating physical movements. The neuroscientist Dr. Petr Janata in his recent studies proved that the area of the brain parcel as a central hub between music, emotions and memories is the medial prefrontal cerebral mantle. In an attempt to understand the medial prefrontal cortex activity, young adults were subjected to extracts of childhood songs piece of music being monitored with fMRI and it was noticed that the activity was optimal when they heard a familiar song that call to mind an emotion or memory (NIH, 2010).Dr. Janata say that in Alzheimer patients the medial prefrontal cortex is one of the last brain regions to deteriorate, hence this explains why patients with Alzheimer may recall childhood origins whereas other memories are lost. In further investigation on the medial prefrontal cortex activity, Dr. Allen Braun and Dr. Charles Limb monitored via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanne r the medial prefrontal cortex in a jazz musician as he played his music. The doctors noticed that the region was not active when the musician played a memorized tune however, it became active when the musician was improvising concluding that the medial prefrontal cortex also has a role in the creative expression of music (NIH, 2010). Going deeper into the music impact on the neurological level, an experiment was done to check the neurotransmitters involved and the time of their exculpate. Via the ligand-based positron emission tomography (PET) scientists discovered that music triggers dopamine release in both the dorsal and ventral striatum. Nevertheless, this discovery was not surprising since dopamine is known to be responsible for the pleasure sensation whether due to sex, drugs or just music. But the more than interesting discovery was the monitoring of the increase in dopaminergic voxels in the right nucleus accumbens (NAcc) preceding a favorite part and peaking when the fav orite part was reached. The phase of increased dopaminergic voxels prior to the favorite part was termed Anticipatory phase, as depicted in the ikon 1, and it prepares us for the subsequent musical part that we love and will cause the dopamine peek giving us the pleasure sensation (Salimpoor et al, 2011).To have a better understanding, scientists took a close-hauled look on the music itself. Early theories about music argued that we get affected by music through the connotative meanings and mental images that it reflects however, according to the musicologist Leonard Meyer it is the equivocalness and not knowing what the next note will be is what keeps us waiting in excitement. Repetitive expected patterns in music is boring and can be annoying like an alarm clock, hence it is the unpredictable patterns that give us the chills. Meyer stated that the uncertainty is what triggers the release of dopamine as we try to figure out what the next note is. We may be able to predict some of the notes but not all of them and that is what cause our brains to plead for those notes that will loose the uncertainty and completes the pattern, yet these notes are usually spared till the end to keep us listening (WIRED, 2011).Music therapy in clinical trialsNow that we had an insight on the neuroscience that relies behind the effects of music, we should note that music has effects on both physical level and psychological level. Some of the physical effects are enhancing immunity, decrease anxiety, and altering the blood pressure and heart rate (NIH, 2010), whereas at the psychological level music has the power to alter our mood and aid in psychotherapy. In this review we will be focusing on the psychological effects and its role in psychotherapy.Several clinical trials have been conducted in order to visit the effectiveness of music therapy. In a clinical trial 46 patients diagnosed with mental picture were randomly separated into two groups. Group 1 was subjected to the sta ndard care that includes antidepressant medication, psychotherapy and psychiatric counseling, whereas group 2 underwent 60 min music therapy sessions in addition to the standard care. The patients were assessed after 3 months and closures showed that people who have music-therapy had less depressive symptoms from those who didnt. Professor Christian Gold, one of the two study leaders, said Music therapy has specific qualities that allow people to express themselves and interact in a non-verbal way even in situations when they cannot find the words to describe their inner experiences. (Erkkil et al, 2011). Another similar clinical trial that was done on 79 patients with low- and medium-grade depression revealed results that reinforces the ones that were retrieved by the first clinical trial mentioned here (Castillo-Perez et al, 2010).In a clinical trial on 80 schizophrenic patients, 42 patient where charge to do music therapy for 60 minutes twice a week while 38 other patients we re assigned to undergo standard care. After 3-month brushup the results indicated improvement in the depression status and psychiatric symptoms of the patients (Lu et al, 2013). It is important to note that there is dose-effect relationship in music therapy by which more recurrent sessions would result in more considerable improvements (Gold et al, 2009).Can music be destructive?The power of music is just like any other power that can be either constructive or destructive depending on the usage. Nice music can lift you up and motivate you, but on the opponent sad or violent music can be destructive. In a study published in 2003 by the American Psychological Association (APA), researchers from Iowa State University examined the effect of violent lyrics by which they made students listen to seven violent songs and 8 nonviolent songs being sung by the homogeneous operative and using the same musical style in order to control the other factors, and then they were assessed for their hard-hitting thoughts and feelings through psychological tasks. The results showed an increase in the warring interpretations where Dr. Anderson, a lead researcher, stated that violent and aggressive music makes people biased toward aggressive interpretations, and this form of interpretations will eventually manifest in aggressive verbal and physical expressions and antisocialism (APA, 2003).What complicate things more is the fact that classification of music as beneficial or destructive can be subjective. In an fact-finding study 80 people were played the same songs but prior that some of them were told that the music is suicide-inducing and others were told the music is life-affirming. The study shows that depending on the prior labeling of the music the same songs were perceived by listeners as either suicide-inducing or life-affirming, thus it is the censorship and prior labeling that might give songs their harmful effects on listeners (North Hargreaves, 2005). As some peopl e argued by saying that negative music gives them sensation of relief due to knowing that someone else felt in a particular way but was able to recover and be creative enough to express their emotions in such a way, hence for them it is perceived as a form of hope if they were in a similar situation (Baker Brown, 2014).Music therapy today and its other potential powersNowadays degrees in music therapy are becoming more available worldwide as people are becoming more aware of the therapeutic role of music whether it is physical, mental or psychological. There are a lot more potential powers in music yet to be discovered such as its role when played in businesses and retails stores and how it can affect the customers behavior (Yalch, 1993), its effect on fetuses by which some claim that the choice of music of the pregnant women will affect their children later on (Kisilevsky et al, 2004), and how in effect does music help hospitalized patients in recoveries and in lessening their pai n (ACS, 2008). Music is an entertaining form of art that is easily accessible to everyone and flexible enough to recompense different tastes these characteristics makes music a potential power that if people knew how to utilize it correctly, they would be seeking a better state of a harmonic life.ReferencesAmerican Cancer Society. (2008). Music Therapy. Retrieved whitethorn 23, 2014, from http//www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternativemedicine/mindbodyandspirit/music-therapyAmerican Psychological Association APA. 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