Music as a Prescription for Health

Last week the BBC published an article on how some day patients may be prescribed music to address physical and emotional problems. Scientists at Glasgow Caledonian University will be looking at how a person reacts to a song's lyric, rhythm, pitch and scale. They think that eventually it will be possible to create digital music programs which would illicit specific emotions, moods and physical responses. There are people doing this now but their approach is intuitive.

Music therapy has taken hold in the past 10 years where many hospitals are using music to aid in the healing process. The Tomatis Method, Advanced Brain Technologies and The Mozart Effect have been using sound and music as a means for working with learning disabilities and mood modification for years.

These programs are more scientific in their approach than a sound therapist using tuning forks but the concept is the same. The difference is that Tomatis and Advanced Brain Technologies diagnose and create a listening plan for each person. Those using tuning forks do not diagnose but instead, take a broad approach to the therapy. Tuning Forks will cover a wide spectrum of frequencies and octaves.

It is good to see that main stream medicine is acknowledging music and sound's positive affect on health. Eventually medication and a music download will show up on a prescription pad (ok, maybe not).

Here's the article from the BBC.