Maybe you are someone who is dealing with a friend or family member with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or maybe you’ve heard about how challenging it is to look after someone with the debilitating disease. Maybe your loved one just passed away because of how Alzheimer’s ravished their body and you are still hurting, wishing you had been able to do more.
As a practicing music therapist who sees patients/clients with this devastating disease, I see how music can improve quality of life even if my time with them is brief. That may include seeing a smile, watching them struggle to sing the words, but visibly enjoying the music or slightly moving their body (head or hands) to the beat of the music. Research is showing that even during the late stages of this form of dementia, that music can play a role in making the individual and possibly the caregiver’s life a little better. “The promise of music therapy for Alzheimer’s disease: A review” is a study by Anna Maria Matziorinis and Stefan Koelsch from July 2022. They investigated a number of studies to see how music could influence/effect the process of making memories, memory recall, showing how music could assist with overall brain function, reducing anxiety and feelings of depression as well as someone’s awareness of self.
In Table 1 on page 14, they listed 15 assessments used to help measure a number of different functions like “…fine motor skills, executive functioning, processing speed, inhibition, memory and attention, depression, activities of daily living, physical performance, previous musical background, and perceptual abilities as measured by the profile of music perception skills” (p. 14). This list is potentially a good list of available resources for those wishing to investigate further. When they published this current article, they mentioned that they were in the middle of doing a study themselves to learn about the “…therapeutic effects of music in patients with, or at risk for, AD” (p, 14).
While this study was not completed by music therapists, it is of interest to me as music therapy is becoming more widely known as an alternative form of treatment that can help with quality of life, memory recall, and variety of other functions which become manifest in the decline in late stage Alzheimer’s patients.
For more information on music therapy and how it helps those with various dementia symptoms, including individuals with Alzheimer’s, visit the American Music Therapy Association’s website at www.musictherapy.org or our website at www.centralohiomusictherapy.com.
Matziorinis, A. M., & Koelsch, S.(2022). The promise of music therapy for Alzheimer’s disease: A review. Ann NY Acad Sci., 1516, 11–17.https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14864
Stephanie H. Morris, MM, LPMT, MT-BC
Neurologic Music Therapy® Fellow