Does Music Therapy Improve Anxiety and Depression in Alzheimer's Patients?

Journal

Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

Year

2018

Issue

1

First Page

33

Last Page

36

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation of a short protocol of music therapy as a tool to reduce stress and improve the emotional state in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. METHODS: A sample of 25 patients with mild Alzheimer's received therapy based on the application of a music therapy session lasting 60 min. Before and after the therapy, patient saliva was collected to quantify the level of salivary cortisol using the Enzyme-Linked ImmunoSorbent Assay (ELISA) immunoassay technique and a questionnaire was completed to measure anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale). RESULTS: The results show that the application of this therapy lowers the level of stress and decreases significantly depression and anxiety, establishing a linear correlation between the variation of these variables and the variation of cortisol. CONCLUSIONS: A short protocol of music therapy can be an alternative medicine to improve emotional variables in Alzheimer patients.

Music and Health Institute Terms

Alzheimer's and Related Dementias; Anxiety; Cortisol Levels; Depression; Elderly; Emotional Functioning; Music Therapy; Neurodegenerative Disorders; Stress Hormone Levels

Indexed Terms

Elderly; Elderly; Alzheimer Disease; Anxiety; Depression; Hydrocortisone; Saliva; Alzheimer's; anxiety; cortisol; depression

Study Type

Quasi-Experimental Study; Quantitative Methods

Disciplines

Music Therapy

PubMed ID

28714736

Document Type

Article

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