When people are stressed and their minds are racing, their attention becomes scattered, maybe causing them to toss and turn at night. The electric circuitry of their brains mirrors the anxiety with jumpy, jittery beta waves. But when people feel relaxed, the pattern calms down, and alpha waves take over.

Now, science has learned how to manipulate the process through music.

After Russian researchers discovered that music can prompt the brain to produce those beneficial alpha waves, Galina Mindlin, MD, PhD, a neuro-psychiatrist who teaches at Columbia University in New York City, introduced music therapy for the brain to the United States.

Chicago osteopath David Moore, DO, recently began using the treatment for his patients suffering from insomnia and anxiety. He takes an electroencephalogram of the wave patterns of their sensory motor strip and frontal lobe while they are relaxed. The test results then are used to create therapeutic music, but not just any generic soundtrack.

“Each person has their own unique EEG pattern that is as individual as their fingerprints, so the Russian scientists created an algorithm to create music for each individual,” Moore says.

Patients receive a recording of their one-of-a-kind composition, which is similar to classical piano music, and use headphones to listen to it. One musical message calms the brain so it’s easy for patients to concentrate; another melody slows the brain down even more so they can drift off to sleep.

“Ancient peoples knew about the healing power of music, but we’ve lost our intuitive sense, and we’re searching to reconnnect with it,” Moore says. He has followed up with about 60 of the 110 patients he has treated with “brain music therapy,” as it’s called, and 85 percent of them have shown improvements.

The Glenview, Ill.-based Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter offers a different kind of music therapy for terminally ill patients. Therapist Pat Harthun, who sings and plays guitar, says, “The music helps patients express their feelings in a way that is much less threatening than talk therapy, and it can also help with physical aspects such as reducing their pain, lowering their heart rate and blood pressure, and helping them to breathe more easily and relax.”

Peace in the Final Hours

When a patient has only a day or two left to live, a music-thanatologist (from the Greek word for “death”) who plays a harp and sings or hums melodies can ease the final hours.

“It’s not a concert, and we’re not playing Bach,” explains music-thanatologist Margaret Pasquesi. “We weave together musical elements in response to a patient’s moment-to-moment changes with the purpose of alleviating physical, emotional, and spiritual suffering, so the music is very individualized as the patient’s respiration rate or agitation changes.”

Chicago resident Katherine Rose knows firsthand about the power of music therapy and music-thanatology. Last August when her husband, Jay, vice chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Chicago-based Illinois Masonic Hospital, was dying from cancer, the couple turned to the Midwest Palliative & Hospice CareCenter.

Converting a Skeptic

“Jay was a bit skeptical about the alternative approach, but he was open to it,” Rose recalls.

One of the CareCenter’s music therapists, Deb Dempsey, went to the Roses’ home. She asked Jay, who was 69, if there were any particular songs he wanted her to sing, and he suggested folk music from the ’60s. “Her songs kindled memories and triggered an incredible emotional release,” Rose says. “We could laugh, we could smile, and we could cry.”

For Dempsey’s second visit, she learned to sing Jay Rose’s favorite song, “My Funny Valentine,” and she played it again at the very end of her third visit when it was obvious that Jay had only days to live.

So in late September, as Jay Rose’s life slipped away, music-thanatologist Tony Pederson played the harp for the music vigil at the Roses’ home, where friends and family gathered.

“Tony explained to Jay that he was there to help him on his final journey,” Rose says. “The role of the music was stunning. You could watch Jay calm down and his breathing change, and we knew that we were witnessing something incredible and profoundly beautiful. It was an exquisite spiritual experience.”


Source: Nancy Maes/Chicago Tribune