The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of recorded, preferred music in decreasing occurrences of aggressive behavior among individuals with Alzheimer's type dementia during bathing episodes. Eighteen older adults, age 55 to 95, with severe levels of cognitive impairment, participated in the study. They were randomly scheduled for observation during bath time under either a control (no music) condition or an experimental condition in which recorded selections of preferred music were played via audiotape recorder during the bathing episode. Following a 2-week (10 episode) observation period, conditions were reversed. A total of 20 observations were recorded for each individual. Results indicated that during the music condition, decreases occurred in 12 of 15 identified aggressive behaviors. Decreases were significant (p < 0.05) for the total number of observed behaviors and for hitting behaviors. During the music condition, caregivers frequently reported improved affect and a general increase in cooperation with the bathing task. The implications of these findings for improving the overall quality of care for severely cognitively impaired older adults are discussed.
In the current healthcare environment, there is a growing interest in the relationship between spirituality and health. The connections between music and both medicine and religious experience are well-established, but little is known about how the musical and spiritual aspects of human experience work together to influence well-being. A review of the healthcare literature from 1973-2000 identified 52 published reports on the topic of music, spirituality, and health. The majority of the papers were narrative descriptions or case studies, and appear within a variety of clinical contexts. Fifty-two percent of the authors were credentialed music therapists. Examination of the literature indicated that many papers used terms and concepts associated with both spirituality and health interchangeably, which might lend support to the basic interconnectedness of these two aspects of being. The function of music across the literature was explored, and a transformational model of music experience derived from the literature is proposed. Based on the findings of the review, several conclusions about the future role of music in spirituality and health are drawn, and recommendations for further research are offered.
The purpose of this study was to substantiate the usefulness of the tasks on two music-based assessments in providing information about music cognition among people with dementia and to more fully understand the nature of this construct and its relationship to general cognition. Individuals with dementia (N = 50) received 3 evaluations: the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), the MBECF, and the RMST. Results of the study revealed significant correlations between the MMSE and both music-based assessments. A pattern of correlations between the MMSE and the subsets of tasks contained in both music-based assessments showed that while there are strong relationships between music and general cognition, that there also is uniqueness to the melodic, singing and rhythmic aspects of music cognition.
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