On Monday (8/2) at the online magazine MillerMcCune.com, Tom Jacobs writes about a new study led by Sergio Castillo-Perez of the University of Oaxaca in Mexico, which found that “Music offers a simple and elegant way to treat anhedonia, the loss of pleasures in daily activities.” Results were published in the journal The Arts in Psychotherapy. Half of a group of 79 patients “took part in a 30-minute weekly counseling session with a psychologist; the other half listened to a 50-minute program of classical music each day. Their recorded concert featured two baroque works (Bach’s Italian Concerto and a Concerto Grosso by his contemporary, Archangelo Corelli) and Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos. Each week, participants reported their levels of depression-related symptoms using a standard scale. ‘We found positive changes at the fourth session in the music therapy group, with the participants showing improvement in their symptoms,’ the researchers report.” The researchers also found that “At the beginning of the study, many of the chosen patients did not show a good disposition to listen to the music. But later on, they not only proved to be interested parties, but also asked for more music of this type.”
Posted August 3, 2010
