Music has the potential to evoke feelings of happiness, sadness and euphoria. 

Music not only brings order to muscular movement, but also promotes order within the mind.

A Stanford University study found that music can boost natural opiates, or natural pain relievers, in our body. Just how powerful these pain-relieving effects can be was seen in a study conducted at an Austin, Texas, medical center, where 50 percent of women who listened to music during childbirth didn’t need any anesthesia.

Read more about how sound and music are important for health and well being….

Blue Shield California Supports Use of Guided Imagery and Sound

In June 2002, Blue Shield released its study on the effectiveness of guided therapy tapes or cds in reducing pain and anxiety from surgery. The study found that 57% of patients who listened to the audio recordings said they experienced less pain than expected from their surgery; 45% had high anxiety before listening to the tapes but less than 5 % experienced similar anxiety after listening before surgery. The more anxious patients felt, the more frequently they listened to the recordings and the greater improvement they documented.

Music can boost the immune system

If you want to give your immune system a boost, music may help. Interleukin-1, a component of the immune system, was found in a 1993 study to increase by 14 percent in subjects after they listened to specific music. A 1998 Japanese study of 19 patients treated with music therapy found a significant increase in the number and activity of natural killer cells. Immunoglobulin, found in saliva, also increases as a response to music therapy.

Music benefits premature infants

Music has been found to be especially beneficial for premature infants. A 1998 study found that premature infants who were sung to had decreased heart rates, less distressed behavior, better oxygenation, ate more, gained more weight and left newborn intensive care 3 days earlier.

Music intervention reduces anxiety in ventilator dependent patients

A research team in Hong Kong tested the effectiveness of music therapy on twenty ventilator-dependent patients, measuring blood pressure, respiratory rate and the Chinese version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Instrument.  Patients were randomly assigned to either 30 minutes of uninterrupted rest and then 30 minutes of music therapy, or the reverse:  music therapy first, followed by the rest period.  Patients had a choice of Chinese or Western music.  Measures were taken at 5-minute intervals during the music intervention.

The study showed that music therapy was more effective at decreasing anxiety than the rest interval (p < .01). Blood pressure and respiration did not show differences.

Wong HL, Lopez-Nahas V, Molassiotis A. Effects of Music Therapy on Anxiety in Ventilator-Dependent Patients. Heart Lung. 2001 Sept-Oct; 30 (5): pp. 376-87.

Music helps people cope with death and dying

Music thanatology is a new branch of music therapy that helps people cope with death and dying. Music therapists use music to relieve depression, anxiety and pain and help improve overall quality of life for dying patients. The use of sound and music in death and dying, however, is anything but new. There are records in the Vedic culture, dating back at least 5,000 years, of using sound for this purpose.

Negative emotions reduced according to Pythagoras

Pythagoras (Greek mathematician, 569-475 BC) taught his students that music could erase negative emotions. Aristotle (Greek philosopher 384-322 BC) lauded the healing qualities of the flute. Today, modern researchers have documented that certain sounds and music do have measurable, potent and diverse healing benefits.

Music reduces anxiety of women awaiting breast biopsy

Twenty patients awaiting breast biopsy at a Kentucky Correctional Facility were randomly assigned to either 20 minutes of music therapy in the pre-op holding area or else were placed in the standard care group.  Their blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and anxiety levels were measured before and after the intervention. This pilot showed that the anxiety and respiratory rates of the patients in the music condition were significantly lower than those of the controls.

Haun M, Mainous RO, Looney SW.  Effect of Music on Anxiety of Women Awaiting Breast Biopsy. Behavioral Medicine, 2001. Fall; (3): pp. 127-132

Music intervention reduces anxiety in patients waiting for cardiac catheterization

W. J. Hamel explored the effects of music therapy on the anxiety levels, heart rate and blood pressure of patients waiting for cardiac catheterization.  One hundred and one people (63 men and 38 women) were randomly assigned to either listen to 20 minutes of pre-selected music or to be in the standard care control group.  Measurements were taken during the waiting period and just prior to departure for the lab.

The intervention group had a significant reduction in anxiety pre- and post (p = 0.003) and when compared to the controls (p = 0.004).  Where the heart rate and systolic blood pressure dropped in the music therapy group, it increased in the control group.  This held up whether the patient was male or female, but the men as a group had higher diastolic scores than the women, and the women had higher anxiety scores than the men.

Hamel, WJ, The Effects of Music Intervention on Anxiety in the Patient Waiting for Cardiac Catheterization, Intensive Critical Care Nursing, 2001 Oct; 17 (5):pp. 279-85