Almost six million Americans have Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, and many live in a long, lonely silence.
Families are forced to watch their loved ones fade away, losing their connections to the world around them before their lives, and until now the treatments were often as heartbreaking as the disease.
But a simple playlist of music has just been proven to help in ways big pharma can’t.You may have seen the effect in viral videos online, with blank-faced seniors seeming to come back to life as they listen to tunes from their happier days. Or perhaps you caught the feature film Alive Inside, which first brought the phenomenon to public attention in 2014.
Spearheaded by the non-profit Music & Memory, more than 5,000 healthcare organizations in the U.S. and 22 states have already adopted “personalized music” programs as official policy. But after a breakthrough study by University of California-Davis was published earlier this year, music’s “medicinal” power now has scientific grounding.
Researchers followed 4,107 residents in 265 California nursing homes for three full years—all of them enjoying a regular diet of music tailored to each person. And the results were astounding. The need for antipsychotic drugs went down 13 percent, while anti-anxiety meds dropped 17 percent. The odds of a patient showing depressive symptoms decreased 16 percent, and even reports of physical pain plummeted 17 percent. Overall, the number of days patients spent on mind-altering medication declined by a full 30 precent, and aggressive behaviors reduced by 20—and all that was needed was an old, donated iPod.
Those numbers are a lot to take in, but the message is clear, says Music & Memory board member Concetta Tomaino, the music therapist whose work with famed neurologist Oliver Sacks established this possibility back in the 1980s. Personalized music helps achieve what families want for their loved ones, with less time spent in a drug-induced haze and at a fraction of the cost.
In short, it makes those living with dementia feel like people again and does so for pennies on the dollar. That’s a huge deal, especially as budgets and manpower are stretched to the limit by COVID-19.
“So many of those people can’t initiate interactions on their own and lose that social connection—that ability to experience basic humanity,” Tomaino says, noting that patients who were already mentally isolated by their condition, are now physically isolated, too. “But somehow music gives that back to them. What the UC Davis study was looking at was, ‘Can we have an impact on issues that challenge care institutions?’”
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The biggest challenge those institutions face is simple: Money. The psychotropic drugs traditionally used to reduce aggressive behavior are expensive, but a nursing home’s entire personalized music program can be run on donated equipment and a few dollars’ worth of MP3 downloads. Following the study, that potential savings might now get programs like Music & Memory taken seriously, leading to a snowball effect of positive change.
“From an administrative point of view, medications cost a lot of money,” Tomaino explains. “It’s one of the biggest expenses in nursing homes. But more importantly, because these medications limit agitation, they also medically depress the person’s ability to respond to the world around them. You’re dealing with people who have lost their ability to relate to things,” she goes on.
“And after receiving medication, that gets even worse. But personalized music provides a sense of connection that eases the confusion and aggression. That’s what it’s meant to do, and this study shows that it works.”
Research is ongoing, and with the results from UC Davis, Tomaino is hoping more of the long-term care community starts to recognize music’s value. But the timing isn’t great. Even though COVID-19 makes the impact of personalized music more needed than ever, the Music & Memory program requires one-on-one time with a trained practitioner—and that is in short supply. But those who’d like to help can do so from home.Money donated to Music & Memory is used to help cover the program’s cost and train more nurses in this simple-but-effective therapy.
“This program has an impact,” Tomaino says unequivocally. “The challenge right now is having a dedicated staff available to do these individualized programs. But if they can do it, the benefits multiply.”