A Place for Mom's Family

Music and the Mind: A Different Kind of Dementia Therapy

The man had not spoken in three or four years. An older man in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, he could no longer care for himself and required a high level of assistance in his daily activities of living.

But on one particular day, Concetta Tomaino, DA, a certified music therapist, offered a different kind of dementia therapy—she sang an old Yiddish song to him and some of her other patients. “You could tell by his face that he was watching,” recalls Tomaino. From a man in his condition, attention was a lot to ask for. “Whenever I got a chance I played this song to him and sang to him. Within a month of doing this, he was making an attempt to speak, and he eventually started singing the song himself. He also started talking again. He continued talking and lived for many years after that.”

This article continues at Dementia Therapy and Music.

 Thank you for sharing this informative article. Music soothes the soul and comforts the mind and that's what I am learning with my own experiences with my mother. She enjoys music and I see how it does calm her 'ticks' of nervousness or agitations of going to the doctor's appointments and she's even starting to carry a beat of tapping her hands on her knee as we drive to town with the radio on for a more relaxing trip. 

Thanks for sharing this.  I can remember my Great Great Grandmother.  I was very young, didn't know that she had memory issues (I do not belive that they diagnosed it as Alzheimer's in the early 80's). I can remember visiting with my Great-Great Grandmother, at the time she lived with her daughter, and her family.  My Great-Grandmother and Great-Aunt had taught me how to play this game in Italian that had a chant.  When we would do this in my Great-Great Grandmother presence...oh, how her face would light up and she would join us in song.  Just remembering her and how she would come to life is amazing to me as I look back.

Great  article. Thank you for posting. I would be very interested in hearing more about methods used to get a patient actively engaged in making music themselves.

What a great post. This is so true. I just did an interview with a Certified Dementia Specialist who works with Alzheimer's patients everyday, and she told me how music is so important and that it really helps her patients.

Music is indeed great therapy for those suffering with Alzheimer's or some form of Dementia. My mother-in-law is in late stages of Alzheimer's and music has been a great comfort to her. Part of her evening ritual includes listening to a lullaby music CD, which has been great for helping her relax and calm down before we put her in bed each night.

Thanks so much for joining this discussion Rich!  I know that many families will benefit from your suggestion.

Can you recommend some music/cd's that you have found that are particularly enjoyable? My mother has dementia. I found that the Christmas albums were especially enjoyable for her because she recognized the songs and was able to hum/sing along. She is enjoying Bob Marley - I think it is the beat she likes. I have tried children's song but they don't seem to capture her interest. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Eliz,

My mother-in-law enjoys lullaby songs right before bedtime. These have had a very calming effect on her. The ones that we have used are piano based and put out by the O'Neil brothers. Here is a link to their website: http://pianobrothers.com/music/SweetDreams/index.asp

During the day we have had best luck with songs that she new and enjoyed when she was younger. She was a big fan of Frank Sinatra, so she enjoys many songs from that era. She also sometimes enjoys some Beach Boys music with its upbeat tune. It seems like the ones that work best are the songs that she enjoyed prior to coming down with Alzheimer's, as those are ones that she is familiar with and still seems to remember. Hope this helps!

Rich

Eliz, Rich,   

I just wanted to share some random thoughts & experiences brought to mind by these articles. 

Think about it, what culture on this planet does NOT have music or song or chants?  I can't think of one.  Any anthropologists out there to vouch for this?  It seems to be hardwired into the human brain and maybe it is a bonus from our ability to speak as no other primate can.  It is obviously a part of the human soul.

My mom is in the early stages of memory loss, can't balance a checkbook any more, things like that, but on the whole is still sharp.  However, she gets into these ruts and will revisit a topic in a conversation over and over and over, which drives me nuts.  One of her caregivers was a witness to one of these bouts and took me aside and suggested that I just remind her of a song from her era.  That usually breaks the cycle and she stops obsessing.  Good thing I heard all those "American Standards" and big band music while I grew up in the 50s and 60s, so it's no problem for me to distract her with a favorite song.  Also, she'll get one of these songs in her head and just randomly start singing it.  They can be a childhood rhyme or something more sophisticated.  But she sure misses the music being around her all the time now that she's moved to a new region of the country that doesn't seem to carry this music.  Boy, did she light up when there was a retired military band playing "In the Mood."

One of the big frustrations I feel needs to be addressed: the lack of FM radio stations with music for Mom's generation.  Why aren't these songs out there?  Mom has a radio but we can't pull in the only 2 AM local stations that play "American Standards," there's too much interference.  Why couldn't an FM station make a go of it and tap this market?  It's obvious from music stores that there is a demand for the CDs.  Is it because they don't think they can sell anything to our parents? There's certainly enough of the music available to make for a Sirius radio band for it.  But Mom can't afford that kind of service.

My husband's mother's cousin loved to play the piano and it was one of the last memory links she could maintain as her dementia progressed.  Her daughter could encourage her to play, she'd play the whole song through at first and had a great "body memory" for the patterns.  But as her dementia has progressed, she would falter in the middle of a song.  Her daughter would remind her of notes to fill in the gaps, and that helped, but now the songs are lost.  It's sad to watch the progression, especially since she seems aware something is wrong, but can't quite figure out what.  She's retaining the older choir songs she learned as a child and has lost the songs she learned as an adult.

A friend of mine recently used music to soothe her mother's passing.  Her mom had suffered many strokes over the last few years, each taking away her mobility, her speech, her awareness & finally her ability to breathe on her own.  Since her mom had played the flute professionally as a young woman, my friend played her mom Mozart flute music as she held her mom's hand in her final hour.  Her mom passed away with a smile on her face.  I only hope I can be that lucky.

 I just needed to share.

Judy, You make such a wonderful series of good points.  And, yes, I'm trained as an anthropologist. 

Just couldn't resist replying because I was discussing brain stimulation and the "hard-wired" rhythm issue with Arizona State Univ. and UCSF researchers.  For those of you wondering, like Judy, if harmonic vibration (whether it's music or ultra-sound) influences the Dementia-afflicted mind...  Here's the letter back to a neuro-researcher at UCSF:

Kathleen A. VandenBerg PhD
Director Neurodevelopment Center
West Coast NIDCAP & APIB Training Center
University of California San Francisco
School of Medicine, Division of Neonatology
533 Parnassus Ave. #0734
San Francisco, CA 94143

Dear Kathleen,

RE: detailed research on any influence/impact of neural-vibro-harmonics emission in-vivo (particularly during the sensate phase of cerebellum -- basal ganglia, auditory-cortex and basal membrane development)

Mediate Body, Move Mind & Rejoice Spirit: Music as Medicine.

By R. Eady, Dir. QEF

You know it intuitively: add music to relax, celebrate, share a moment, reminisce, delight your spirit. It’s a universal pleasure – and something more. The use of music for therapy and stress-reduction is on the rise.

Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, for instance , found music therapy reduced the average length of stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for premature infants by three days. Also, an article in the British Journal of Surgery discussed the benefits of "music with/as medicine" during surgery for both surgeons and patients. It improved surgeons’ speed and accuracy, increasing the patients’ pain tolerance and even stilled the heart to allow for more effectively and less costly cardiograms.

Throughout the United States a burgeoning recognition of music as therapy can be found in nursing homes, care centers, schools and wellness and health care facilities aspiring to improve mood, encourage socialization, stimulate physical response and enhance mental function of patients with Alzheimer's, dementia, Parkinson's disease, chronic pain and countless other health conditions.

Womb-mimicking heart-throb music has found a place in the most progressive NICUs. It has proven effective in respite for caregivers and even helped cancer patients cope with the side effects of chemotherapy.

Here are some tips to help expand your musical therapy appreciation:

Rule One: There are no hard and fast rules. There’s certainly magic in music, but there is no magic music. It can caress with memories, feelings and emotions, but it’s only the more natural tones or harmonic frequency notes that create a universal effect.

So even if certain music is marketed for relaxation, there is no guarantee that you, personally, will find it relaxing. Keep looking until you find what works for you.

Rule Two: Initially, synchronize your music with your mood. After a stressful day at the office or with the kids, you may tend to play smooth, soothing music that doesn't match your mood at the time. It does match the mood you hope to obtain.

Ironically, it may be more efficient to relax by starting with faster music that matches your current mood, then incrementally moving to slower music. Give your mind and body a chance to slow down rather than shifting immediately from high gear to low.

This recommendation is based on physics and plenty of emerging fieldwork regarding the principle of entrainment.

Since certain frequencies occur in natural surrounding (such as the frequency of the heartbeat into the womb at 512 hertz) there’s strong empirical evidence to suggest everything in the world has a vibration at the molecular level. Because your body is composed mostly of water, it is an excellent conductor of sound and it attempts to resonate with the vibrations around you.

The principle also suggests that it is most efficient to meet where you are, entrain, then gradually change pace, pulse and pattern to reach your goal.

And what exactly is your goal? Perhaps it’s best to take a cue from a neonatal technique called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC).  In the most progressive NICUs pre-term infants are placed in skin-to-skin contact (think kangaroo pouch) so a steady pulse, can syncopate between the maternal source and baby. This aids in circulation, breathing and body temperature regulation.  A simple melody within a small range of resting heart rate (about 60 bpm) and some repetition promotes physiological relaxation, and a solid, slow-moving bass line helps with grounding.

Rule Three: Don't choose music for a particular purpose by genre. There are lots of variations within genres. Some people automatically think classical music is relaxing, but that’s not always true. Think of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto, which is full of angst and anger. On the other hand, some new age music is too thin: There isn't enough in it to help you relax.

Rule Four: The optimal music for relaxation is personal, so be aware of your own responses. Even if a piece of music meets all the standard criteria to be relaxing, if you’re not enjoying it, it’s not going to take you where you want to go.

Feeling the Beat
As you explore stress management through music, keep these practical tips in mind.

Lyrics tend to be less relaxing because they engage the left brain and language center, often inspiring ideas, memories and emotions.

Speakers create a general vibration, while headphones offer a more localized experience.

Headphones can be helpful when trying to tune out the environment.

Experiment with different music in your quest for calm.  And, since music and mood are so interlaced, don't be surprised if your reactions to the same music differ from day to day.