‘Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It’s not about entertainment as much as its about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else’s mind, you can begin to fix a problem.’ --- Jodi Picoult (Author of the bestselling book Sing You Home)
Music has played an important role in the history and lifecycle of humans since pre-historic times. Interestingly, music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying widely between times and places (Wikipedia).
There is now compelling evidence from original research studies and meta analyses that listening to music and music therapy both have a positive impact in many patient groups and on several important parameters (such as pain, depression, quality of sleep, anxiety) affecting patients’ quality of life.
How about hemodialysis?
Based on literature data, most hemodialysis patients are affected not only by socio-economic and physical stressors but also by psychological/mental health problems, most notably sleep problems, anxiety and depression.
The idea of music improving health is based on the observation that music activated brain structures and from there via the psycho-neuro-endocrine-immunological framework the psycho-physical system. So far, the theory.
But how about real-life effects?
On behalf of numerous research groups around the globe studying the effect of music on hemodialysis and other health parameters, here a brief overview of two studies published in 2018:
Effect of Live Singing
A total of 24 patients with ESRD participated in this cross-over study. Twelve of the patients listened to 15 min of live singing (performed by a musically trained dialysis nurse) during 6 consecutive hemodialysis sessions, while the other 12 underwent standard hemodialysis. In a nutshell, listening to live music was associated with improvements in:
Systolic and diastolic blood pressure
Better quality of sleep
Fewer cramps
Anxiety/depression
Pain
Itching
Source: Burrai F (2018) Effects of Listening to Live Singing in Patients Undergoing Hemodialysis: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Study. Biological Research for Nursing 1-9
Effect of Music Therapy
In this study, 23 hemodialysis patients were tested regarding the effects of music therapy quality of life parameters (QOL) and depression symptoms at two distinct stages – before and after the intervention. Four musical therapy techniques were used:
Musical recreation
Musical improvisation
Musical composition,
Listening to music or receptive experience
At the end of the study, patients showed a significant reduction in depression symptoms (p < 0.001)
and better QOL results, such as pain reduction and improved mental health.
Source: Hagemann P (2018) The effect of music therapy on hemodialysis patients’ quality of life and depression symptoms. Braz. J. Nephrol., 2018, Ahead of Print
Since hemodialysis usually takes four hours (close to five with all the preparation and disconnection time), listening to music has become an integral part of my hemodialysis routine. For more than 30 years, I am now a fan of the louder sounds found in songs by Iron Maiden, Dio, Dream Theater, Metallica, Disturbed and Rammstein. At the beginning of my musical socialization, I also listened a lot to the German band Helloween. In fact, the Helloween concert during the 'Pumpkins Fly Free Tour' in October 1988 in my hometown has been the first heavy metal concert I ever visited. Very fond memories!
About a week ago, I re-listened to their two master pieces after about 20 years: Keeper of the Seven Keys – Part 1 and 2. What can I say? Even if written in the 1980s, Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 and 2 just remind us that light can be as powerful as darkness, even in metal records!
Interested? Give it a try: Future World A Tale That Wasn’t Right I Want Out
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