If you've never used music to blow off steam, or to relax and improve your mood you're missing out! According to Daniel J. Denoon's article on music and mood, music, in all its forms improves mood, no matter what! Valerie N. Stratton, PhD, and Annette H. Zalanowski, of Penn State University conducted a study which included psychology and music students keeping music-listening diaries for 2 weeks. "Not only did our sample of students report more positive emotions after listening to music, but their already positive emotions were intensified by listening to music," Stratton stated. It's amazing to think that something like music can almost act as an antidepressant drug, without the horrible side effects. The students reported being more optimistic, joyful, friendly, relaxed, and calm. They also reported feeling less negative and sad. "Every positive mood except loving rose in intensity after episodes of listening to music," Zalanowski said in a news release. "Meanwhile, most of the negative moods showed a drop in frequency -- except sad, hateful, and aggressive, which either stayed the same or increased slightly."
Because of the increasing knowledge of the uplifting powers of music, a new form of therapy has been born. It's called music therapy and, apparently, it's quite effective. Researchers from Cochrane Collaboration found that treatment including music therapy was more effective in relieving depression symptoms that treatment which did not include music whatsoever. “The current studies indicate that music therapy may be able to improve mood and has low drop-out rates,” said Anna Maratos, an arts therapist for the National Health Service in London. “While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation….We need to find out which forms have greatest effect.” And I agree with Anna 110%. In the future, if we could treat or even cure depression with just single tune, well that's worth investing in. A 100% natural "drug" and no side effects, can't get much better that that.
Because of the increasing knowledge of the uplifting powers of music, a new form of therapy has been born. It's called music therapy and, apparently, it's quite effective. Researchers from Cochrane Collaboration found that treatment including music therapy was more effective in relieving depression symptoms that treatment which did not include music whatsoever. “The current studies indicate that music therapy may be able to improve mood and has low drop-out rates,” said Anna Maratos, an arts therapist for the National Health Service in London. “While the evidence came from a few small studies, it suggests that this is an area that is well worth further investigation….We need to find out which forms have greatest effect.” And I agree with Anna 110%. In the future, if we could treat or even cure depression with just single tune, well that's worth investing in. A 100% natural "drug" and no side effects, can't get much better that that.
Denoon, D. J. (2003). Music improves mood. WebMD, Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20031022/music-improves-mood |
Parker-Pope, T. (2008, January 24). Using music to lift depression's veil. The New York Times, Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/24/using-music-to-lift-depressions-veil |
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