What scientific evidence supports music as a healing modality?
Recent research has revealed interesting statistics on the diverse effects of music in therapeutic situations. Just a few examples are: • At the California State University in Fresno, studies by psychologist Janet Lapp have shown that migraine patients who have started and continue to listen regularly to their favorite music have one-sixth as many headaches as before. • Premature babies at UCLA in Los Angeles and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta gained weight faster and used oxygen more efficiently; and babies at Tallahassee Memorial Regional Medical Center had shorter stays in the Intensive Care Unit when music was played for them daily, compared with babies in control groups without music. • For adult patients, “half of an hour of music produces the same effect as ten milligrams of Valium”, says Dr. Raymond Bahr, head of the Coronary Care Unit at Baltimore’s St. Agnes Hospital • When used by surgical patients, music has been shown to help reduce the amount of anesthesia n
