Music Therapy as a Standard of Healthcare: Evidence Review
This paper examines the case for incorporating music therapy into standard healthcare by synthesizing findings from multiple peer-reviewed and professional sources. Drawing on studies covering surgical stress response, post-operative anxiety, back pain, hypertension, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, rehabilitation, elderly care, terminal illness, and childbirth, the paper documents music therapy's broad physiological and psychological benefits. It traces the historical roots of therapeutic music use from Biblical and classical antiquity through its formal recognition in the mid-twentieth century, and presents a compelling argument that music therapy's positive, reliable, and cost-effective outcomes justify its inclusion as a built-in component of standard medical care.
- Introduction: Defines music therapy and its therapeutic scope
- Historical Background and Mechanisms of Action: Origins and physiological effects of music therapy
- Music Therapy in Surgical and Post-Operative Settings: Evidence from surgical stress, anxiety, and pain studies
- Benefits for Chronic Conditions and Special Populations: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, elderly, terminally ill, and childbirth
- Music as a Self-Enhancement Tool: Personal music use for mood, immunity, and performance
- Results and Discussion: Synthesis of cross-source findings and implications
- Future Research Directions: Proposed areas for further clinical investigation
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper systematically synthesizes a wide range of sources across multiple clinical contexts, building a cumulative case rather than relying on a single study.
- Each source section is clearly attributed and connected to a specific health application, making the evidence easy to follow and evaluate.
- The paper moves logically from historical grounding through physiological mechanisms to specific clinical populations, giving the argument both depth and breadth.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates an annotated literature review structure in which each cited source is briefly summarized and its findings explicitly connected to the central thesis. Rather than merely listing studies, the author draws cross-source comparisons — for example, noting how findings on cortisol reduction during surgery complement evidence on anxiety and pain reduction in post-operative patients — to build a coherent, evidence-based argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis-driven introduction, followed by an extended literature review organized source-by-source. A methods section briefly identifies the descriptive-normative research approach. A results and discussion section then synthesizes the literature review findings thematically. The paper closes with suggested directions for future research and a full bibliography. This structure mirrors a standard undergraduate research paper format, blending literature review and argumentative essay conventions.
Introduction
Music therapy is a technique or mode of complementary medicine that uses music to alter a patient's physical, emotional, intellectual, or social condition (Turner, 2001). It has been tried and found to improve the well-being of older patients in nursing homes, lower the stress and pain levels of women in labor, and benefit students, inmates in rehabilitation centers, patients in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes, as well as clients in community centers and the home. The therapeutic effects of music are recorded in history from Biblical times to the present. Music therapy has helped many people restore physical, emotional, social, or cognitive balance. It also helps to relax, reduce stress, improve mood, and even strengthen the immune system. In order to produce these effects, music therapy is administered by skilled therapists (Turner, 2001).
For its broad-spectrum benefits and the absence of any harmful side effects, music therapy should form part of standard healthcare.
Historical Background and Mechanisms of Action
Records of music therapy date as far back as Aristotle and Plato. Egyptian and Biblical documents also confirm that music was used to lighten illness and sorrow. American and European researchers in the 1800s discovered the connection between music and the states of the body and the mind, measuring it in terms of cardiac output, rate of breathing, pulse, and blood pressure. Numerous studies on the effects of music on health have been conducted since the 1980s. Dr. Susan Hallam of the Department of Psychology and Special Education at the Institute of London gathered and evaluated more than 200 scientific studies, reports, and books on the health effects of music. Collective research revealed that music has strong therapeutic effects. It can alter behavior, mood, and emotional, physiological, and cognitive states. It can reduce anxiety, pain, and drug dosages by as much as 50%. It promotes well-being, improves symptoms of psychiatric patients, reduces depression, and promotes rehabilitation and recovery. It enhances the production of stress-related hormones and natural painkillers (Ambroziak, 2003).
Dr. Hallam's findings showed that music influences physiological arousal according to the type of music heard. Loud and fast music tends to excite and arouse, while calming music tends to soothe. Physically, heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, muscular tension, motor responses, and skin temperature tend to rise with fast and loud music, and to fall in response to slow, soft music.
The impressive health benefits observed in World War II veteran patients encouraged further studies and the formal establishment of music therapy as a discipline. Degrees in this new field began to be offered in the late 1940s and 1950s. The first association of music therapists, the National Association of Music Therapy, was organized and later merged with the American Association for Music Therapy in 1998 to form the American Music Therapy Association (Turner, 2001).
Brain function undergoes physical changes in response to music. Breathing can slow and calm. The heartbeat either speeds up or slows down according to the type of music heard and its volume. Music relaxes muscle tension and improves motor skills, and has proved particularly beneficial in rehabilitation clinics. Levels of natural painkillers called endorphins rise, while those of stress hormones fall, when one listens to music. This decrease in stress hormones reflects music's ability to boost immune function by raising interleukin-1 levels — a finding supported by a 1993 study at Michigan State University in which participants listened to music every 15 minutes (Turner, 2001).
Mentally, music can sharpen mental capacity or help relax the mind. It can enhance memory and learning, especially in children with learning disabilities, and increase concentration — a specific example being the "Mozart effect," whereby college students perform math computations better while listening to classical music. As to its emotional effects, music releases feelings, tones down tension, or creates a calming atmosphere. Lullabies are a familiar example of music used to soothe babies to sleep. Music has also been used as an effective means of expressing emotions indirectly, making it a valuable therapeutic tool for certain disorders (Turner, 2001).
Music Therapy in Surgical and Post-Operative Settings
Surgery is a stressful time. The patient becomes anxious, and stress disturbs metabolic, neurohormonal, and immune system levels. Cortisol and natural killer lymphocytes increase. A randomized study was conducted to investigate how music therapy reduces stress during day surgery by evaluating changes in plasma levels of cortisol and natural killer lymphocytes. Sixty randomly selected patients scheduled to undergo surgery at a university hospital in Italy were studied from January to December 2005. Results showed that plasma levels of cortisol and natural killer lymphocytes were reduced during surgery in those who listened to music. The conclusion was that perioperative music therapy decreases stress. Furthermore, the style of music appeared significant in reducing stress, strongly suggesting that music therapy can have a positive effect on patients about to undergo surgery when they are allowed to choose their preferred style and type. Perioperative nurses and managers should therefore consider including music therapy as part of their surgical routine (Allen, 2007).
Anxiety before surgery can negate desired outcomes. Increased anxiety can raise the level of circulating hormones, prostaglandins, and free fatty acids, which can lead to myocardial and other organ ischemia, dysrhythmia, hypercoagulability, malnutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, decreased wound healing, and immunocompromise. Anxiety also increases oxygen use, cardiac output, and blood pressure, and it requires higher doses of anesthetics and sedatives — a condition that can produce negative effects on recovery. Surgical teams must therefore consider interventions that can decrease anxiety and pain (McRee et al., 2003).
In the 1800s, music was used to induce sleep, decrease anxiety before surgery, and assist in administering anesthesia. A pilot study of 30 patients about to undergo orthopedic surgical procedures investigated whether listening to music reduced their anxiety. The respondents said that music facilitated the surgery, covered background noise, and kept their minds off the dreaded procedure. Hospital staff reported that the patients were calmer throughout the surgery and that pulse and blood pressure were more stable (McRee et al., 2003).
A separate group of researchers studied the physiological effects of music therapy on 22 critically ill patients in an intensive care unit. They found that the therapy reduced heart rate, systolic blood pressure, pain, and anxiety. A six-month study determined that patients who listened to music before painful procedures needed 30% less pain medication than those who did not. Another study examined the perceptions of 25 participants administered local, spinal, or epidural anesthesia; at an interview 20 hours after surgery, they reported that music reduced their anxiety, distracted them, and increased their tolerance for pain (McRee et al., 2003).
One study examined the effect of music on pain among patients who had undergone thyroidectomy, parathyroidectomy, or modified mastectomy. Those who listened to music could tolerate pain much longer than those who did not, and also perceived their experience as more pleasant. Another study investigated music's effect on the anxiety of groups of patients undergoing heart surgery; members of all groups reported reduced anxiety and improved moods, and their heart rates and blood pressure decreased significantly. Additionally, a study of 42 ambulatory surgery patients found that those who listened to music in the 10 minutes before surgery had significantly lower heart rates than those who did not (McRee et al., 2003).
These studies collectively recommend the adoption of music therapy to help decrease the overall stress response of patients. Nurses must develop an understanding of this non-invasive and cost-effective approach to improving outcomes and patients' experiences.
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