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Kyleigh Ryan

Cassel

Eng. 1201

Research Paper

5/9/2021

Music Therapy and Mental Health

Plato once said, “I would teach children music, physicas, and philosophy; but most

importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning." Music has

had a major impact on many people’s lives. It has become more than just a way to pass time or

something to use in the background but has become a form of expression and relief. Music

therapy applies that everywhere. Imagine a young cancer patient sitting quietly in their hospital

room, afraid to make the wrong move or take the wrong breath. They simply sit in silence for

days, unsure of the right decision to make, searching for a way to find relief from the place they

are stuck in. Music therapy can be brought to them and can help them open up about their fears.

It can help them through their anxieties, and through the sorrow, they feel stuck in. This

intensive form of therapy can help relieve these factors in many people's lives and can do so

much more. Music therapy can help patients with their social needs, as well as their emotional

and cognitive needs in order to help build their minds, and increase their mental health. Through

music therapy, the mental health of many people’s lives can be changed for the better.

People with mental health disorders like bipolar disorder, anxiety, and depression often

are looked upon as sick or bad. The stigma around these disorders has been a huge issue for
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years. In a New York Times article by Michele Hollow, we learn about Ronald Braunstein, an

orchestra director with struggles with bipolar disorder. He opens up about how music has

changed his life for the better and wanted to share that with other people. He formed a group

made up of musicians who also deal with mental health issues. In this ensemble, they travel and

perform where people could use a smile, like hospitals or correctional facilities. Their goal is to

bring light to where they go. The group and the audience both receive a sense of "calm" and

healing has been brought to people when they did not think it possible. This group has expressed

their love for music and how it changed their minds on their own mental health disorders. One

member even said because of the group she finally feels like she can truly play again. These are

all examples of music therapy. (Hollow)

Music therapy has been proven to show up in cultures way before the 20th century. It was

even found in writings from Aristotle and Plato. The first time music therapy truly appeared in

the public eye was in 1789 in a Colombian Magazine article, but the first time it was used in an

institutional setting was thought to be around the 1800s. This has now become a more commonly

used practice around the world. The American Music Therapy Association defines music therapy

as “the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals

within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved

music therapy program” (AMTA 2021). Music therapy can help patients with social needs, as

well as their emotional and cognitive needs in order to help build their minds and increase their

mental health.

Music therapy can have a huge effect on someone's emotional regulation. Emotional

regulation "is an internal process through which a person is able to maintain a comfortable state

of arousal by modulating one or more aspects of emotion” (Moore). A 2013 study done by Kim
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Moore found that emotional regulation strategies often change the way someone sees a situation

as well as how they react to it. These neuro-pathways that the mind creates can be morphed

through music therapy in a positive way. Music has proven to be able to pull emotions from

people and has been used to induce moods in people as well. For example, music with a

repetitive melody that is predicable and deemed joyful or happy can be played and used as an

intervention strategy in order to help a penitent feel happy. Actively listening to or physically

playing music with these melodies can often have these same effects. This is because the neural

pathways begin to change when the music is played. The brain makes connections between the

feeling of being happy and the song that is being listened to, played, or sung. The different paths

allow for the brain to connect more feelings to other memories, and doing this consistently it can

change the way someone's emotions regulate for good. (Moore)

Recently Noramal-Haigner and a group of his colleagues found a section of the brain that

the brain responds to more often than other regions. These regions (displayed in the image

below) all have different jobs within the brain and can activate other parts of the mind as well.

This development in research has caused a huge growth in the music therapy field and has made

these therapists needed more than ever. Music therapists now often work alongside psychologists

in practice to help ensure patients are getting the best, more effective care. This combination of

care allows for the perspective of two people on the neurological element of therapy. They are

able to work together to actively change the brain's network. This network change is caused by

blood-oxygen levels changing in the brain, as well as by looking at changes within the autonomic

nervous system, by looking at arousal levels. Tests have shown when music is played both of

these aspects increase. The brain transfers work towards creating a permanent change, while the
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arousal levels are giving a more temporary change. The neurological changes that go along with

music therapy have some of the strongest effects on its patients.

Fig. 1 A description of how music affects parts of the brain. As well as where each part is

located. (O'Kelly)

Along with the physical change that happens during music therapy, there is an emotional

change as well. This is because music has direct access to one's feelings. This idea has been

proven time and time again. Music activates many regions of the brain. Because of this, many

emotions can be triggered through music. It often can pull at memories and direct you to feel the

emotion you first connected to the song. This can be used in a therapeutic way, by purposefully

using music to trigger certain emotions. These triggers can begin to release dopamine and other
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hormones in order to help someone feel happy. Dopamine is a chemical within the brain the

influences someone’s mood towards rewards. When this chemical is released is makes the brain

feel “happy”. Pop music or music with a relatively simple rhythm and melody is often found to

release dopamine, and within these studies, it was found that the mind begins to think more

positively when that form of music I used. By purposefully triggering this dopamine to be

released therapists are able to help the patient feel happier, quicker. (Stevens)

One way to continue activating the release of dopamine is through active listening. Active

listening is a method used in music therapy. In this method, the patient is creating or playing

music themselves. The therapist can use this to investigate a song more with their patient, or to

allow them to create a song that truly expresses their emotions (The Australian National

University). This also releases dopamine within the patient. The music sends signals within the

brain and triggers the amygdala (the part of the brain that is in charge of emotion) to feel joy.

They can also look directly at phrases within the lyrics and open a discussion about the music.

This can help the patient develop new emotions with songs and may help them even develop

other emotions to tie to these songs. These newfound emotions and attachments that can be

created towards a song can also help the client grow emotionally. By continuing to undergo this

care and treatment a patient can start getting longer-lasting effects and can begin feeling happier

longer.

Music therapy is also used to work with patients with other mental health disorders, not

just depression, and anxiety. It is often used to work with patients with dementia and

schizophrenia. Often improvisation music therapy is used here. In this form of therapy, patients

are encouraged to create their own music, whether that is writing songs, playing an instrument,
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or singing something that comes to them. These actions stimulate the brain and can begin to

regulate the actions and ideas it emits. Along with working with these patients, music can also

help in surgical settings. A study done on Sufi music showed that in processes where Sufi was

played that patients were less anxious than when the room was silent. The word most used by the

patients was "calm". Creating the sense of feeling "calm" is important to music therapists. They

want their patients to feel ready for their surgery and not afraid. By ridding of the tenseness the

patient Is feeling during surgery the therapist or doctor can easily start the procedure without

hiccups. This shows one-way music therapy can be used for more than just treating patients with

depression and anxiety. (Gurbuz-Dogan et al.)

Music therapy can also be an effective treatment for people who have autism spectrum

disorder. "Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental condition that involves

persistent challenges in social interaction, speech, and nonverbal communication, and

restricted/repetitive behaviors" (Copeland). People with ASD have characteristics like

communications/ interaction issues and have restrictive or repetitive interests and actions.

(Copeland) Music therapy has been used to help with these communication and interaction

boundaries. In 2019 a study was done to test the effects of music therapy on people who have

ASD. It was done on a group of 54 children with mild to server autism. They were put randomly

put into a control and an experimental group, the experimental group received three months of

music therapy. After the three months of received therapy, the children were watched and their

social skills were then examined for the following three months. The results showed that the

mean score for social skills on the experimental group improved significantly and was much

higher than the control group. Based on these scores, music therapy did increase social skills

with children with ASD. The improvement in social skills also led these children to have a
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greater ability in some of their other struggle areas, such as their abilities to respond and

understand their peers. (Bharathi, Venugopal, & Vellingiri) results such as these prove that

music therapy can do more than help with anxiety and depression, but also with other mental

health disorders.

Some people would debate that music therapy can never be as effective as simply

medicating a patient. Medications like anti-depressants can be effective for some patients

suffering from anxiety and depression, but not for all. Oftentimes patients have to go through

trial periods of different combinations of medications and it can take weeks or months to find the

correct fit. On top of this, there is also a risk factor when taking anti-depressants. This includes

things like increased health risks for unborn children, with-drawl symptoms, and oftentimes the

medication has a reverse effect. Instead of decreasing the depressive symptoms, they may

increase them and can increase suicidal thoughts or actions. Because of this, there is a huge risk

to take medications to treat mental health disorders (Mayo Clinic). Although music therapy

should not be the only form of treatment for patients dealing with server mental health disorders,

it can still be effective when used alongside other care treatment methods. Music therapy can be

an alternative choice to taking medications.

“"Active music engagement allowed the patients to reconnect with the healthy parts of

themselves, even in the face of a debilitating condition or disease-related suffering," says music

therapist Melanie Kwan…” (Novotney). In this study, a group of patients underwent procedures

while listening to music from start to finish. They were all administered little to no medications

at the start of the procedures. It was found that nearly all of them expressed less distress, and

often times IVs were easier to administer. In other studies, similar results have been found, and

within different age groups. Music has proven to be an effective form of treatment to replace
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medication in many different settings and age groups (Novotney). Although music can be an

alternative to medications in a lot of cases, some cases are too severe for simply just receiving

music therapy, and the two different forms of treatment can be combined to create the most

effective care plan for the patient.

A study was done on 79 patients aged 18 to 50 who were diagnosed with depression. In

this study, they combined standard treatment (standard therapy session and medication) with

music therapy sessions. They randomly placed the patients into two groups, a control, and an

experimental group. One group continued receiving their normal care plan while the other group

began receiving music therapy along with their normal care. After six months of undergoing the

changed treatment plans the patients who received music therapy showed a significantly lower

depression score and displayed fewer symptoms of anxiety than patients without the music

therapy sessions (shown in Fig. 2). By combining the forces of traditional care with music

therapy patients are seeing the most effective results, with greater outcomes. Because of this

music therapy has once again proven that it can be effective when working with mental health

(Charles Li MD).
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Standard Care vs W/ Music Therapy

10.5
10

7
6

3.9 4.1

2.4
2

0
Standard Care Dep. Score Music Therapy Dep. Score
Standard Care Anxiety Score Music Therapy Anxiety Score

Fig. 2 This chart displays results from Charles Li MD’s study on depression care treatments.

Standard care treatments received lower scores in both categories making them less effective

than combined care with music therapy treatments (Charles Li MD).

These disagreements about music therapy have been proven false. Music can be one of

the most effective forms of therapy, especially when combined with other forces, like medication

and standard therapy. By creating a safe place where patients can openly express themselves

through music therapy, they are creating the most effective care plan for themselves. By doing

this on a regulated basis you can continue to change and adjust your thinking, and better your

mental health. Music therapy continues to change the world of therapy, despite what critics may

say.

Everyone has their favorite song they listen to on repeat. That is just one little way music

changes lives. We watch it in little things by just bringing joy and fun to a party, but we can see
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the real effects it has on people's mental health. Music therapy has made a huge impact on the

therapy world and has changed it for the better. This relatively new form of therapy has become

a huge form of relief for so many people. The little kid sitting in the hospital can finally find a

new more encouraging way to present his feelings. He can find joy in his music therapy sessions

and change his mindset to be more positive. These influences can make a huge impact on him

and the people around him. He feels open to the world, and can finally be who he wants to be.

All thanks to introducing music therapy into his life. This form of therapy not only helped

change and formed new pathways in his mind, but also helped him to be able to regulate

understand his emotions more. Situations just like his show how much music therapy can help

patients with their social needs, as well as their emotional and cognitive needs in order to help

build their minds, and increase their mental health.

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Works Cited

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www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2020/music-mental-health.html.

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The Australian National University. “Music Therapy and Listening to Music.” BluePages, 1

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William Bor, 2008.” SAGE Journals, 1 Jan. 2008,

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Copeland, Nathan. What Is Autism Spectrum Disorder?, Aug. 2018,

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