Music is a wonderful modality for therapy and should be daily, in my opinion. Ideally, music should be available all the time, perhaps in the form of a piano to play. I find it is not used often enough. I have dementia patients who are totally anomic except when singing and who clearly get great joy and comfort from listening to and producing music. It is often very soothing for agitated patients (if it is soothing music! I know that if I am ever demented and in a nursing home, if they play country western music I will get more agitated! I'm a classics lover.) I find that most of the literature is about types of music therapy but perhaps others are aware of literature about frequency of use.

There has been some research at the university I attend on music therapy and dementia. I only know of this, but do not work with them and have not looked too far into their work. I'm sure they would be happy to help if you contacted them (Hanne Mette Ochsner Ridder) I hope it helps :)

Music Therapy and Dementia

http://vbn.aau.dk/files/62961380/Ridder_2012_musikterapi_demens.pdf (the article is in Danish, but google translate should help)

A joint research protocol for music therapy in dementia care

http://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/a-joint-research-protocol-for-music-therapy-in-dementia-care(b3af0480-2dff-479c-9651-3b12b6ff3048).html (in English)

I have just received, seen and read very beautiful responses from Catapano-Friedman & Peterson. Many thanks to to both of you.

Muhammad Aledeh

Music therapy is very beneficial for patients suffered from dementia, especially in the early stages of the disease. Our twenty year experience pleads in favor of a quotidiant music therapy with barock music (Antonio Vivaldi) or classical music (Motzart). The improvement of the emotional state, as well as of commumication with the relatives, the psychologists and the music therapists contribute substantially in the amelioration of the quality of the life in the majority of the patients

Mohammad~

For more information on the use of music therapy and Alzheimer's patients, please see Robert Fiedman's Healing Drum. A library search of peer-reviewed articles on the subject is also available.

Here is an extract of a news item that may be of help:

Even Patients with Severe Dementia Respond to Music

http://www.psmag.com/health/even-patients-severe-dementia-respond-music-43320/

French researchers report music therapy can improve the mood of people suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease.

July 9, 2012 • By Tom Jacobs • No Comments and 0 Reactions

Music has charms to soothe even those suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease. That’s the key finding of encouraging new research from France, which found music therapy enhanced the moods of patients as much as four weeks after the conclusion of a four-week-long program.

It’s the latest in a series of studies that point to music therapy as an effective tool in dealing with dementia. The Italian Psychogeriatric Association just reviewed 32 papers published over the past decade, and found a pattern of significant reductions in such symptoms as depression, delusions, and hallucinations.

The new French study, published in the journal Music Perception, is—like most studies of people suffering from dementia—based on a very small sample: 11 people. But it was structured to provide a direct comparison between music therapy and an alternative treatment approach: specifically, eating and cooking.

The patients, members of a French residential home for the elderly who had been diagnosed with severe Alzheimer’s disease, took part in eight sessions (each lasting two hours) over four weeks. By design, each of the sessions alternated between passive and active activities.

The five members of the music group “were seated in a circle around a table on which various musical instruments (mainly percussion) were placed,” writes a research team led by Sylvain Clement of the Universite de Lille – Nord de France. A selection of songs proposed by the patients themselves were played from a CD, and the patients were encouraged to accompany the music “by tapping, rubbing or shaking” the percussion instruments.

“Between the songs, patients were encouraged to express their feelings about the musical listening and to try to verbalize memories evoked by the music,” the researchers write.

The six members of the cooking group “were seated around a table on which utensils and ingredients needed to prepare a dessert were placed.” During each session, they together created a simple dessert such as an apple pie or fruit salad, “cutting, peeling, measuring quantities and mixing the ingredients” and tasting them as they went along.

Echoing the music sessions, “participants were encouraged to express their feelings about food and to try to verbalize memories evoked by food,” the researchers write.

The participants’ state of mind was evaluated at the beginning, midpoint and end of the four-week program, and again two weeks and four weeks later. The researchers used three separate measurements of the patients’ emotional health: their facial expressions, vocabulary, and overall mood. “The main results were that music was more effective than cooking in improving the emotional state of patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” the researchers write.

Specifically, the music therapy increased scores on all three measures at both the midpoint and end of the four-week program. Moreover, the patients’ moods remained significantly elevated four weeks after its conclusion.

“In contrast with the music intervention, the cooking sessions had almost no positive effect on the emotional state of the Alzheimer’s disease patients,” the researchers write.

The difference is striking, since the two sets of activities were similar in many ways: both elicited strong, pleasurable sensations (hearing music and tasting sweets), and both involved pleasurable interaction.

Clement and his colleagues aren’t sure why the music therapy was so much more effective. But they note that in a 2009 study (published in French), they found music therapy improved the mood of Alzheimer’s disease patients far more than participation in a painting workshop (although visual arts have their partisans, too).

“It appears that music interventions may have a specific beneficial effect on the emotional state of patients with Alzheimer’s disease,” the researchers conclude. While more and larger studies are needed, it seems a particularly effective way “to produce long-lasting effects on patients’ emotional well-being” involves beating time to favorite tunes.

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In a very timely manner, the current issue of Pacific Standard cites a new study by the French which concluded that music helped ease depression, psychotic symptoms, and agitation, even in advanced Alzheimer's, much more than did other activities, such as cooking and eating. The article also cites a literature review by the Italian Psychogeriatric group which comes to the same conclusion, that music therapy is very effective even in advanced Alzheimer's.

Thank you for your quastion

Music therapy ususally lasts for a couple of hours on an every day basis

I have been receiving very beautiful responses and had wanted to respond and share my recent practical experience with some residents, but my tight schedule had prevented me from being able to respond.

Thank you very much Lisa Catapano-Friedman.

Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy, I want to specially thank Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy and Carrie Peterson, your response as well as the link you attached are very invaluable and relevant to the topic in question. Thanks a lot.

Thank you all who have contributed and those wishing to still respond.

Regards

Muhammad Aledeh

I thing, that music therapy is not discovered to the end, because there are no any pharmacodynamic model for this. Action could of MT on neurotransmitter in brain and also on melatonin. Some of music (f.e. V.O.H. Magdalena Tul (ESC 2011, Poland) album intially causes irritation before proper actions. Concentration free models, f.e. K-PD models could be have value for such analysis. And music-therapy effect on sleep-fragmentation in children with ASD (autism-spectrum disorders) as replaced parameter. We could submit such EU grand, but cooperation of three or more countries from EU and/or USA will need for this.

In the United States, music therapy is provided based on the specific needs of the patient for whom it is recommended. In my experience, many receive music therapy services weekly, at a minimum, and more frequently if it is found to improve benefit. The music does not need to be a "one size fits all approach" or any sort of panacea for one specific composer/genre/etc, but rather that to which the patient responds most effectively. Specifically regarding individuals with dementia, research has shown that music from their formative years ( typically the patients' late teens to early twenties) will be the music to which they will show te greatest response as it is stored in long-term memory. When effectively applied, it can decrease agitation, confusion and often assist in decreasing sun-downing effects as well as increasing reality-orientation.

Music therapy may be beneficial even in advanced stages of dementia according to twenty years experience of the memory clinic of the department of Neurology of Aristotelian University (unpublished data). Music therapy may be applied for a couple of hours every day.

Dear Dr. Aledeh,

I introduce this article for your question.

Thrita. 2013 December; 2(4): 76-9.

Music Therapy Reduces the Intensity of Pain Among Patients With Cancer

 Nader Aghakhani