Research Findings: Benefits of Music Therapy

Affecting 55 million people worldwide, dementia is deterioration within the brain that leads to impairment of cognitive functions. There are many types of dementia such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, Huntington’s disease, frontotemporal dementias, traumatic brain injuries, and AD being the most notable and common. AD is caused by a buildup of amyloid plaques and NFTs that cause damage within the brain. Music therapy is a treatment intervention that can be used for individuals with dementia. Music therapy involves music and its elements and is conducted in many environments such as groups, individuals, families, or communities. The purpose of music therapy is to optimize quality of life while improving emotional, intellectual, social, physical, communicative, and spiritual health and well-being. In doing so, music therapy reduces agitation, decreases neuropsychiatric symptoms, improves memory and cognition, increases quality of life, and promotes social participation