It is said that music can get us through anything! It is good at relieving stress, anxiety, sadness, and other negative emotional states. Doctors even prescribe music as it can help us heal!
— September 10th, 2020
Daniel Levitin, Ph.D., a neuroscientist at McGill University in Canada and author of, explains that the state of a surgery a patient is in before the operation very much predicts the outcome.
Usually, doctors give their patients a mild sedative such as Valium to settle the heart and nerves. But in a recent study, a team at Södertälje Hospital in Sweden took a different approach. Instead of giving patients a drug, they had them listen to relaxing music for 20-40 minutes before undergoing surgery. Compared to the second group of surgery patients (who received the usual sedative), the group who listened to calming music experienced a more pronounced pre-op reduction in anxiety.
The Swedish team’s finding is a common one. According to other scientific studies, music reliably reduces anxiousness among people preparing to undergo surgical operations. But, the emotional benefits of music are not confined to the operation room!
The field of music therapy has exploded in recent decades, and trained music therapists are now helping people manage anxiety disorders and other physical or psychological conditions ranging from pain to PTSD.
More so, according to an August report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly one-third of Americans suffered from anxiety and depression symptoms during June. At a time when sociopolitical strife and the threat of a deadly virus continues cause despair, it’s possible that listening to music —but also playing it, singing it, and composing it may help us heal.
This article is a re-post, with small modifications, of “Music Can Get Us Through This” an article by Markham Heid published on elementalmedium.com
