Lewelyn Fernandez
Research Review
Writing 116
November 15, 2012
Music Therapy and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Research Review
Abstract:
Alzheimer’s being one of the most predominant brain disorders is the sixth leading cause
of death in the United States and there are about 54 million older people who have
Alzheimer’s disease. Aside from medicine music therapy is an alternative, beneficial
and inexpensive system of treating adults with this progressively fatal brain disease. In
many research cases music therapy has proved to be effective in coping with the severe
difficulties and symptoms that might overcome a person suffering from Alzheimer’s
disease. There are numerous techniques that can be used in a way that can positively
benefit an one with Alzheimer’s and preserve the functions and capabilities they still
possess.
Introduction:
Music therapy has been notorious for method of treatment in the psychology research, but
as music therapy continues to benefit to support and benefit the field of science advance
studies have been generated in cases of neurology. Music therapy is being research as a
technique to support brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, which is very common
in the population of people over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological
dysfunction where the brain depreciates with age; it is caused by the loss of neurons in
areas in the brain that manage important cognitive function of the brain. Because of the
lack of neurons the brain can no longer function in the same manner, allowing one to
have severe loss in memory, speech complications, behavioral frustrations and many
more difficulties. No cure has been discovered for people suffering with Alzheimer’s
disease. Medication is the number one treatment being used to cope with their numerous
everyday struggles. As a result, music therapy has been introduced into the medical field
as a potential form of treatment that helps support and recuperates patients or people
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Studies show in many cases that associate with music
therapy and Alzheimer’s disease all share common areas of research linking them
together.
Short-term vs. Long-term memory:
Both articles Musical and Verbal Memory in Alzheimer’s disease: A Study of Long-term
and Short-term Memory written by Belleville and Mernard and Music as A Nursing
Intervention for Residents with Alzheimer’s disease in Long-term Care by Shirm, and
Sambandham both share a common objective which is that study the way the short-term
and long-term memory can be enhance through methods of music therapy. These two
studies experiment on the short-term and long-term part of the brain, testing the musical
memory of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The research conducted by Belleville and
Mernard stated that music must pass through the short-term memory before it can be
processed in the long-term memory. To test this theory they used a method where they
played unfamiliar music to two different groups of Alzheimer’s patient short-term
memory loss and long-term memory loss patients. Following this musical presentation
the unfamiliar melodies would be played for the patients 1, 5, 10 times throughout the
day, and at the end of the day the patients were tested with recognition tasks. The
recognition tasks would determine the improvement in their memory if there were any.
This experiment revealed that patients with short-term memory had a higher chance of
remembering unfamiliar music than the long-term memory patients. With this being said
Bellville and Mernard’s hypothesis about short-term acting before long-term memory
was correct because the short-term memory patients recalled more of the unfamiliar
melodies than the patients suffering with long-term memory. The research conducted by
Shirm, and Sambandham experimented also on the short-term and long-term memory of
Alzheimer’s patients, but they prolonged their music therapy experiment for a longer
amount of time. Using different methods such they were able to acquire positive results
that also prove that short-term memory patients benefited more in this experiment. The
methods used in this research were for caregivers to present a group of Alzheimer’s
patients suffering with short-term memory loss with their favorite styles of music
specially selected from their loved ones. The caregivers were ordered to repeatedly play
the music for the patients everyday. After months of repetition the patients appeared to
have developed a better recollection of the music that was continually played for them.
The key in this research study was repetition, by reiterating the music to the patients
everyday, the music started to stimulate their brain enhancing their memory of the music
played for them. In both of these case studies they achieved their objectives of using
music therapy to benefit the short-term and long-term memory of Alzheimer’s diseased
patients.
Language and Communication dysfunctions:
The research articles Music as A Memory Enhancer in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease
by Simmons-Stern Nicholas, Budson et. al and . The Impact of Music Therapy on
Language Functioning in Dementia written by Koger and Brotons both discuss the
language and communication dysfunctions that occur in the population of people with
Alzheimer’s disease. Although the topics of these two articles share similar topics they
use different techniques of music therapy to study this particular symptom of Alzheimer’s.
The research article titled Music as A Memory Enhancer in Patients with Alzheimer’s
Disease used children’s songs recurring lyrical patters and the printed lyrics from a
computer. The purpose of this experiment was to discover if Alzheimer’s participants
benefited from music being sung or spoken to them. There were two groups in this study,
which were Alzheimer’s diseased participants and healthy elderly adults. Researchers
assumed that the participants in both groups would benefit more from the lyrics being
sung than spoken to because by singing the music and encouraging them to sing along it
would enhance their communication skills. The results show that in both groups that the
participants who had the music lyrics sung to them improved their communication and
socializing skills compared to the patients who merely had the lyrics spoken to them. In
the research article conducted by Koger and Brotons a slightly different path was taken
where they had the Alzheimer’s participants sing during the musical therapy sessions.
Along with pictures and some of their favorite song to help them reminisce the events in
their past these methods seemed to be effective when used in long term trials. The
participants in this study showed that by having the patients sing the music or lyrics it
triggered parts of their brain to help recuperate poor communication and socializing skills.
Language improvement also proved signs of improvement according to the researchers.
Active and Passive Music Therapy:
Once again the articles Music as A Memory Enhancer in Patients with Alzheimer’s
Disease by Simmons-Stern Nicholas, Budson et. al and Music as a Nursing Intervention
for Residents with Alzheimer’s Disease in Long-Term care by Shirm, and Sambandham
exhibit a commonality in Alzheimer’s disease which is using active and passive music
therapy as methods to help slow down the progression Alzheimer’s in the brain. The first
article by Simmons-Stern Nicholas, Budson et. al used alike methods where during he
passive music therapy session the caregivers used a tape recorder with children’s musical
lyrics for the patient to listen to, while the active music therapy session the patient was
allowed so sing songs or play an instrument from their past. Results exposed that the
active music therapy sessions were more efficient because the caregivers interacted more
with the patient encouraging them to play or sing music. This played a significant part in
this study because the Alzheimer’s patients were able to reminisce or recall how to sing
or play an instrument like they once did in their past. The second article by Shirm, and
Sambandham uses passive and active music therapy methods to observe if they have an
affect of patients with Alzheimer’s. For passive music therapy nurses used a tape
recorder with repetitive tunes the patients would listen to for 20 minutes during the music.
The music session was three days of the week for three months. During the same time
the active music therapy was also taking place on other patients. The methods practiced
were different because the patient had to be musically inclined in either playing an
instrument or vocally inclined being able to sing. Observations show that the patients
showed minimal amount of memory recall, where as the active music therapy showed a
greater improvement in their aptitudes of reminiscence.
Conclusion:
Following the topics discussed in this research review the methods and techniques used
for music therapy can be altered in several ways to improve a certain function or ability
lost by a person with Alzheimer’s. Short term and long term memory use a certain
method, such as repeating musical melodies that trigger the regions of the brain where
function deficit occur. Methods for language and communication dysfunctions vary in
the types of approach because any form of verbal or active music therapy can recuperate
the socialization and language skills. The techniques for music therapy may be altered
active and passive music therapy has specific directions that target cognitive, verbal, and
behavioral or memory aptitude. Although music therapy has a diverse system of
treatments, they all share one thing in common which is that they use music to help cope
with the disabilities of Alzheimer’s disease.
References:
1. Simmons-Stern Nicholas R., Andrew E. Budson, Brandon A. Ally. Music as A
Memory Enhancer in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuropsychologia. 2010. 3
October 2012. 10:3164-3167.
2. Fukui Hajime, Kumiko Toyoshima. Music Facilitate the Neurogenesis, Regeneration
and Repair of Neurons. Medical Hypotheses. 2008. 3 October 2012. 71:765-769.
3. Marie-Claude Menard, Sylvie Belleville. Musical and Verbal Memory in Alzheimer’s
Disease: A study of long-term and short-term memory. Brain and Cognition. 2009. 3
October 2012. 71:39-45.
4. D Aldridge. Alzheimer’s Disease: rhythm, timing and music as therapy. Biomedicine
& Pharmacotherpay. 1994. 3 October 2012. 48:275-281.
5. Melissa Brotons, Susan M. Koger. The Impact of Music Therapy on Language
Functioning in Dementia. Journal of Music Therapy. 2000. 3 October 2012. 37:184195.
6. Mary Sambandham, Victoria Schirm. Music as a Nursing Intervention for Residents
with Alzheimer’s Disease in Long-Term care. Geriatric Nursing. 1995. 3 October 2012.
16:79-83.