New Study Reveals How Music Can Help People With Dementia



As their health worsens, dementia patients frequently lose the ability to speak orally with their loved ones. The Institute for Therapy through the Arts (ITA) and Northwestern Medicine have recently conducted research that shows how an innovative music intervention can close this gap.

The "Musical Bridges to Memory" intervention, which was created at ITA, has a live ensemble playing music from the patient's adolescence, such as tunes from the musicals "Oklahoma" or "The Sound of Music." The authors of the study contend that allowing patients and their caregivers to engage in musical activities such as singing, dancing, and modest instrument playing together fosters an emotional bond between them.

The program also enhanced social interaction among patients and reduced neuropsychiatric symptoms like agitation, anxiety, and sadness in both patients and caregivers.

According to current estimates, more than 6 million people in the United States alone are thought to be affected by Alzheimer's disease.

Dr. Borna Bonakdarpour, the study's principal investigator, claims that the study is special since it focused on both dementia patients and the carers who provide for them. Early studies on music therapy for dementia patients tended to concentrate solely on the patients.

According to Bonakdarpour, a neurologist at Northwestern Medicine and an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, "patients were able to interact with partners through music, a relationship that was not available to them verbally." "People with dementia's friends and family are also impacted by it. When they are unable to communicate with a loved one, it hurts them. Music serves as a link between people when communication through language is no longer an option.

Alzheimer's disease has less of an impact on musical memory and processing.

According to Bonakdarpour, music memories frequently persist in the brain even when language and other memories fade with dementia. This is due to the fact that Alzheimer's and dementia do not begin to damage areas of the brain involved in musical memory and processing until much later in the course of the disease (e.g., the cerebellum). As a result, patients can continue to sing and dance long after their capacity to speak has declined.

Residents of Silverado Memory Care (in a suburb of Chicago), dementia patients, and their care partners interacted and talked for 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after the intervention. This interaction was captured on film for the study. Each patient and caregiver couple received training on how to communicate more successfully when the music was playing before the music started.

An ensemble of chamber musicians and a singer sang songs that the patients liked from their early years throughout the 45-minute musical intervention. Simple instruments like tambourines and shakers were given to the patients and their caretakers to accompany the music. During concerts, specially trained music therapists mingled with the audience, encouraging them to sing, dance, and pound on drums.

The group chattered after the song. More eye contact, less diversion, less agitation, and improved moods all indicated that patients were more socially engaged. In contrast, the control group, which was subjected to routine daily care and activities instead of the intervention, did not demonstrate such changes within the same time frame.

"Everyone could connect with their loved one"

Some people would not talk to their partners much prior to the intervention. The family experienced a huge improvement when they began to play, sing, and dance together during the intervention. These modifications also affected how they behaved when they were not in sessions.

As the Musical Bridges to Memory program developed, caregivers started inviting more family members, according to Jeffrey Wolfe, a neurologic music therapist fellow at ITA and coordinator of the program. It helped the entire family feel more at ease. Regardless of their level of dementia, everyone could relate to their loved one.

The study will be conducted on a bigger sample of patients as the following phase in the research process. The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded ITA and Northwestern a three-year grant to further this research.

By NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 

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