Using Music Therapy to Enhance the Quality of Life in a Client with Alzheimer's Dementia: A Case Study

Familiar Music as an Enhancer of Self-Consciousness in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

“…These types of music interventions also provide an opportunity for family members to reestablish emotional closeness and meaningful interactions that may have been lost due to the AD, appreciably enhancing the quality of life of both the patients and their family. It is possible that music stimulation delivered in group settings could permit patients to receive cues to increase their social interactions [66], which have been linked to the maintenance of cognitive and emotional functioning [67] and social skills [68]. It would be interesting to perform future studies in order to understand the nature of familiar musical processing in patients with AD, which could allow the development of effective and comprehensive musical interventions for this disease.…”

The Effect of Pre-Meal, Vocal Re-Creative Music Therapy on Nutritional Intake of Residents with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: A Pilot Study

“…Music therapists have investigated the impact of music engagement on various emotional, behavioral, and physiological aspects of functioning among residents with ADRD. Qualitative and quantitative outcomes indicate that individual and group engagement in music-based experiences can modify mood (Hanser & Thompson, 1994;Suzuki, 1998), improve reality orientation (Riegler, 1980;Smith--Marchese, 1994) and cognition (Bruer, Spitznagel, & Cloninger, 2007;Prickett & Moore, 1991), decrease agitation and irritability (Brotons & Marti, 2003;Brotons & Pickett--Cooper, 1996;Choi, Lee, Cheong, & Lee, 2009;Lipe, 1991;Suzuki, Kanamori, Nagasawa, Tokiko, & Takayuki, 2007;Svansdottir & Snaedel, 2006), decrease wandering (Groene, 1993), increase speech content and fluency (Brotons & Koger, 2000), reduce apathy (Holmes, Knights, Dean, Hodkinson, & Hopkins, 2006;Moore, 2010), increase positive social interaction (Brotons & Marti, 2003;Pollack & Namazi, 1992), improve physiological/immunological functioning (Kumar et al, 1999;Takahashi & Matsushita, 2006), and enhance overall quality of life (Ahonen--Eerikainen, Rippin, Sibille, Koch, & Dalby, 2007). (Additional relevant literature from 1986 to 1998 appears in Broton's chapter, "An Overview of the Music Therapy Literature Relating to Elderly People" in Music Therapy in Dementia Care [Aldridge, 2000]).…”

Bedside Musical Care: Applications in Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Neonatal Care

“…Music holistically affects the healing process, even when cure is not possible. Extant research suggests that music has both physiologic effects and a powerful capacity to affect emotion and mood, stress, and anxiety (Mornhinweg, 1992); pain reduction in myocardial infarction (White, 1992); oncologic treatment (Beck, 1991;Cook, 1986;Frank, 1985;Porchet-Munro, 1995); early memory loss and Alzheimer's disease (Clair & Bernstein, 1990;Gerdner & Swanson, 1993;Lipe, 1991;Norberg, Melin, & Asplund, 1986;Olson, 1997a); elder care and elder sleep disturbance (Mornhinweg and Voignier, 1995); surgery (Carlson, 1996), and pain control (Whipple & Glynn, 1992).…”