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Is Music Therapy more effective than drug treatment methods in Alzheimer patients?
Alzheimers Disease is a disorder that is progressive and can not be reversed. It is also
the most common form of Dementia. People that develop Alzheimers disease are typically in
their mid-60s, so it is definitely a disease that is most prevalent in older communities, but
very gradually and can not be reversed. People living with Alzheimers disease have lives that,
depending on what stage they are in, are filled with memory loss, wandering, trouble
remembering friends and family, unable to learn new things, or even a loss of communication.
The way that Alzheimers is treated can either be with therapy related treatment, or even drugs
including cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine. These two types of drugs are the only ones
that are currently approved for the treatment of Alzheimers disease. These drugs will treat the
main symptoms of memory loss, and problems with thinking and reasoning.
The problems with drugs is that they can sometimes create side effects that are not so
great for individuals with diseases. A study was conducted that looked at NSAID drugs which
stands for Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs. In this study, the researchers developed
conjugate drugs because the problem with these types of drugs (NSAIDs) is that if you use them
for a long period of time, they can produce something called gastrointestinal toxicity. According
to Cacciatore et al, NSAIDs diminish the risk of AD, delay dementia onset, slowing its
progression and reducing the severity of cognitive symptoms (2). In this specific article, these
types of drugs have been said to possibly be able to treat Alzheimers disease. This article and
study, however, have found ways to alter these drugs in order to prevent that. Altering drugs can
cost a lot of money and time which can be less beneficial and effective in the long run. When
deciding what type of treatment to give an alzheimers patient, it depends on if they want to use
Music Therapy is an up and coming method of therapy that is actually very beneficial for many
instruments,
This infographic shows the brain and how music works in each part |
https://www.kindermusik.com/mindsonmusic/benefits-of-music
/your-brain-on-music/
sing, or just listen to the music being played by others. In a study that was conducted and
recorded in an article by Palisson et al, 12 mild Alzheimer patients and 15 control patients were
asked to either memorize a text with musical association, non-musical association, or spoken
with or without a 5 minute delay; after this, recall of the text was measured. The results showed
that overall, the texts that were sung were remembered far better than the spoken texts both with
and without the 5 minute delay. To come to the conclusion based on this article, musical
association in alzheimers patients memorization and learning is more effective than just
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speaking it aloud. This is important to realize because this study is showing that music therapy is
helping these patients to remember things that they normally may not be able to remember on a
regular basis. Due to the fact that music produces emotions, alzheimers patients might
remember a memory in which they felt the way they do with the music. Music Therapy is a very
important form of therapy especially in people that may have a disease involved with memory, or
retention of information, because music is definitely a form that aids in boosting these areas.
This image shows performances by controls and alzheimers patients recall of texts | Palisson et al
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Continuing on with the article about the alzheimers patients recalling a text, an
interesting fact was found. Palisson et al says thus, contrary to what Simmons-Stern and
colleagues found, music may improve recollection of specific content (involved in free recall)
and not only familiarity (511). This little fact is very key because with Alzheimers and
dementia patients, a lot of memory that is recalled from memory might be vague and broken up,
but when music is used, suddenly they are able to remember more specific content and it may
flow more when being recollected. Music is used in a variety of ways, but when it comes to the
http://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/info-2015/music-therapy-for-alzheimers.html
Music therapy is a treatment that uses the aspects of music, such as rhythm, lyrics, and
even beats to help with memory, learning, cognitive functions, and even behavior. Music is a
diverse form that can help with many different things and with many different types of people as
well. When looking at Alzheimers disease, this is a disease that causes memory loss, cognitive
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problems, and even behavioral problems. Ridder et al says that basically music is a form that
helps with social interaction communication because music makes people feel empathetic
expressions that are almost better than verbal communications. It is most common in older
individuals, because it is progressive and can start as young as 30. Music is something that is
introduced at young ages, starting even when you are a baby. Music being used with older
individuals is effective because they are most likely familiar with music, and they might
remember things such as memories and recall of basic information when using musical forms.
Caroline Bartle is part of a collaborative called 3 Spirit which is a group that provides training in
the health and social care sector. From a blog about music and dementia, Bartle says,
Music can be active or receptive, active often involves playing an instrument but can also
include singing. For many of the people I teach receptive music is what they will use,
however active music engages a wide range of cognitive skills, and from that perspective,
This being said, music therapy helps in any way for alzheimers patients, but in order to engage
with the cognitive skills these patients must be more active with the music; playing an instrument
or singing. Bartle also states that, our association with music often has a cultural, and emotional
significance in our lives. It can elicit emotions and associations that have previously been
forgotten (paragraph 10). Emotions are important to be brought up through music therapy
because those are what will help patients remember certain memories in their lives.
http://www.3spirituk.com/adventure-music-dementia-new-zealand-personal-story/
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When looking at other forms of treatment, drugs are going to be another form that is
somewhat simple to get, and is easy to use. There are side effects that will come along with
drugs, but that is to be expected. In terms of Alzheimers disease, there are just a few different
types of drugs that have been found to help treat this disease, but they have to be altered in order
Despite the evaluation of numerous potential treatments in clinical trials, only four
cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine have shown sufficient safety and efficacy to
allow marketing approval at an international level. These five agents are symptomatic
treatments, temporarily ameliorating memory and thinking problems, and their clinical
effect is modest; they do not treat the underlying cause of AD and do not slow the rate of
decline (2).
Something important to remember about drugs are that they are most likely going to work pretty
quickly, but they might not reach certain areas for alzheimer patients that another form of
Due to the fact that there are multiple drugs that can be used to help treat alzheimers
disease, there can be issues with all those types that need to be looked at. In an article about a
specific drug called Memantine, there were studies that have been done on alzheimers patients
to test whether this drug reacts well with the patient and whether it helps treat their symptoms or
not. According to Jue Jiang and Hong Jiang Yang et al. found that memantine did not
significantly improve the activity of daily life in AD patients. Lockhart et al. and Yang et al.
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reported no significant benefits of memantine on mental behavior, as assessed by the NPI. This
http://www.medicaldaily.com/antipsychotic-drugs-among
-elderly-raise-death-risk-dementia-patients-326150
some may not. The drugs that have been found to work in Alzheimers patients are good forms
of treatment, but only temporarily help with memory and thinking problems. These drugs do not
treat or cure the causes of alzheimers, and they do not slow the rate of decline, according to
Cummings et al. (Alzheimers Research & Therapy). The problems with drugs is that they can
have toxic effects, which can actually end up harming people that are taking them. Therapy, and
more specifically music therapy is going to help patients to become more emotionally stable and
be able to remember things more easily with no type of influence except the influence of natural
music.
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In a book titled, Musicophilia - Tales of Music and the Brain, there is a section that
specifically talks about music therapy and how it works in individuals with dementia, or more
Music therapy with such patients is possible because musical perception, musical
sensibility, musical emotion, and musical memory can survive long after other forms of
memory have disappeared. Music of the right kind can serve to orient and anchor a
This comes directly from a study that was conducted on a patient by the name of S.L. in
Oklahoma. Although this man was affected by alzheimers, he could still play musical
repertoires from the past, but he could not simply recall information on other memory tests.
There is something so remarkable about music and how someone that can not even recall basic
information like how to tie a tie can remember an entire solo from a piano piece and play it spot
on. Music touches parts of our brain that only can be affected with music, and nothing else.
Music and Music therapy go beyond the realms of just helping with a specific thing. Music
therapy in Alzheimers patients goes into the emotion, cognition, thoughts and memories of these
individuals and touches on these specific brain parts that might need an extra boost.
A study was conducted that wanted to see the effects that music therapy had on two
different patients with frontotemporal dementia, which is a form of alzheimers. The test was
taken before and after music therapy was used. This study used the Cohen-Manseld Agitation
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This picture shows the effects that music therapy has on agitation, physical and verbal aggression, and
Inventor model of testing agitated behaviors. The results show that according to Ridder et al, it
was noted that sta experience frequency as having decreased after the course of music therapy,
and that Mr As expression of agitation seemed less disturbing after the therapy course of
intervention (122). In this study, a lot of the agitation and aggression was seen to have
decreased in some areas, which is beneficial because behavior is one thing that is affected in
Alzheimers patients. The importance of this study is that alzheimers is a disease that can create
many different challenges in peoples lives. This specific study looks at agitation and aggression
which are issues that some patients come across when dealing with Alzheimers. The effects that
music and music therapy have on these patients is important because the music can actually
Verbal memory is an important thing for people to be able to recall, but autobiographical
memory is probably one of the most important types of memory that an individual person will
want to recall in order to live a happy life, and be able to enjoy memories that they have. Music
Therapy is something that can help aid in the process of patients with alzheimers trying to
remember these autobiographical memories. Drugs might help with this, but it can also cause
health effects if used too much for a long period of time. In an article from Mohamad El Haj,
Virginie Postal, and Philippe Allain, there was a study done that involved 12 mild Alzheimer
patients in which they were exposed to either silence, the Four Seasons, or chosen music. The
results show that the patients that chose their own music, recall was the highest. Both types of
music were higher than silence, however. These results directly show that music regardless of if
it is a certain type or it is chosen is much more effective than trying to recall things in silence.
This study is directly tapping into the emotional aspects that music therapy can invoke. This is
more than drugs can do, because drugs do not have the power to tap into our emotional sides like
music can. According to this article, Music Enhances Autobiographical Memory, studies have
found that when people are trying to remember memories, the emotional ones are more
remembered than the unemotional ones. This is an important factor because music is known to
invoke emotions in people depending on what type of music they may play.
Many different forms of treatment for diseases, and specifically alzheimers disease are
all important and are all widely used. Some forms of treatment, however, might be more
effective and even be more healthy. Music therapy is definitely a more widely used form of
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treatment and is becoming more used as it progresses as a form of therapy. Drugs are also
another form of treatment. With drugs might come some side effects and even some health issues
later on. People are developing drugs in order to avoid these types of things, but that can also
take longer to work through. The beauty of music therapy is it is always there and there is no
need to alter it in order for it to work. Music therapy might not work for everyone, but it
definitely might help. From the different studies that were mentioned above, it is known that
different types of uses with music were all seen to have positive effects and outcomes in
alzheimer patients that were trying to recall memories whether that be verbal or
autobiographical.
Music therapy is something that is becoming more popular to be used because it is all
natural and does not require any drugs to be taken of any kind. Music has such a powerful aspect
to it that works through many different people. Based on studies that have been done, music
therapy has actually worked with individuals in order to memorize things such as a simple text.
When singing is used, there is a tendency in people to remember it a whole lot better than when
saying it aloud. The reason for this is because of maybe a certain beat or rhythm that they
remember from childhood that help them remember what they were saying. Music also aids in
recalling memories that may be associated with an emotion that is brought up. Music therapy is
also beneficial and effective in alzheimers patients with behavioral or cognitive issues. This is
important because cognitive and behavioral functions are used in everyday life, and having
Bartle, Caroline. An Adventure, Music, Dementia and New Zealand - A Personal Story.
3SpiritUK, 15 Dec. 2014, Accessed 26 Mar. 2017. www.3spirituk.com/adventure-music-
dementia-new-zealand-personal-story/.
This blog post comes from a website that helps in the health care areas. Caroline Bartle
works specifically with people in New Zealand, and this is where she learned about
Music Therapy. She learned a lot about music and the brain, which fascinated her. She
basically goes into talking about how she used receptive music to help with dementia
patients. She says that music is important in a disease that erodes memory because it can
actually restore it.
Cabedo-Mas, Alberto, and Diego Moliner-Urdiales. "Music Therapy and Cognitive Capacity in
People with Alzheimers Disease: A Call for Action." Nordic Journal of Music Therapy, vol.
23, no. 2, (2014), pp. 195-197. Accessed 12 March. 2017.
This article talks about how they want to encourage researchers to investigate the
effectiveness and impact of music therapy on cognitive functions. This is important to
know about because cognitive functions are used in everyday life. The main part of this
article is to bring a call to action that music therapy has an impact on these functions in
people with Alzheimers disease.
Cacciatore, Ivana, Lisa Marinelli, Erika Fornasari, Laura S.Cerasa, Piera Eusepi, Hasan Trkez,
Cristina Pomilio, Marcella Reale, Chiara DAngelo, Erica Costantini, and Antonio Di
Stefano. "Novel NSAID-Derived Drugs for the Potential Treatment of Alzheimer's
Disease." International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 17, no. 7, (2016), pp. 1-16.
Accessed 14 March. 2017.
The main aspect of this article is about NSAID drugs and how they have potential to treat
alzheimers. The authors of this article have authority because they are most likely very
proficient in what they are studying or researching about. Throughout this article it goes
into detail about these types of drugs and how there are conjugate drugs that will not
produce gastrointestinal toxicity.
Cummings, Jeffrey, Paul S. Aisen, Bruno DuBois, Lutz Frlich, Clifford R. Jack Jr, Roy W.
Jones, John C. Morris, Joel Raskin, Sherie A. Dowsett, and Philip Scheltens. "Drug
Development in Alzheimer's Disease: The Path to 2025." Alzheimer's Research & Therapy,
vol. 8, (2016), pp. 1-12. Accessed 12 March. 2017.
This article is about the drug development in Alzheimers disease and how researchers
and scientists are trying to treat alzheimers disease by 2025. The main aspect of this
article is about how certain drugs, such as ones in late phase 1, will have a chance of
being approved by 2025. Basically this article is saying that people need to be aware and
educated on Alzheimers in order to be able to develop more intense drugs to hopefully
treat AD someday.
El Haj, Mohamad, Virginie Postal, and Philippe Allain. "Music Enhances Autobiographical
Memory in Mild Alzheimer's Disease." Educational Gerontology, vol. 38, no. 1, (2012), pp.
30-41. Accessed 13 March. 2017.
This article goes into detail about Alzheimers disease and how music aids in the memory
aspect. This article goes in depth about a study that was conducted about patients with
Alzheimers Disease and how when they listened to specific types of music, or no music
at all, helped aid in autobiographical memory recall. This is an important article because
it helps explain how music itself benefits in memory for these patients.
Fukui, H., A. Arai, and K. Toyoshima. "Efficacy of Music Therapy in Treatment for the Patients
with Alzheimer's Disease." International Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, (2012), pp. 1-6.
Accessed 10 March. 2017.
In this study, these researchers find that music therapy is an effective way to possibly
treat alzheimers disease or at least help with the effects of alzheimers disease.
Testosterone hormone is supposed to have preventive effects on the disease, and
apparently is increased with music in the presence of individuals. The aspect of this
article is showing that behaviors such as fugue had decreased with music therapy.
Jiang, Jue, and Hong Jiang. "Efficacy and Adverse Effects of Memantine Treatment for
Alzheimer's Disease from Randomized Controlled Trials." Neurological Sciences, vol. 36,
no. 9, (2015), pp. 1633-1641. Accessed 16 March. 2017.
In this specific article, clinical studies have been done that show the role of a drug called
memantine in Alzheimers patients. In these 2,293 studies that have been conducted, only
about 13 of those met the criteria. Memantine did show benefits to cognition, mental
state, and activities of daily life. This drug still seems to be low in the positive outcomes
that it has produced in Alzheimer patients.
Palisson, Juliette, Caroline Roussel-Baclet, Didier Maillet, Catherine Belin, Jol Ankri, and
Pauline Narme. "Music Enhances Verbal Episodic Memory in Alzheimers Disease."
Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 37, no. 5, (2015), pp. 503-517.
Accessed 12 March. 2017.
This is another article that I wanted to include in my research because it talks again about
Alzheimers and how music enhances verbal episodic memory which is important in
peoples lives. This article talks about a study in which groups of people with the disease
and a control group of people that were healthy were given a text to learn and present
with either singing, speaking (to a silent movie sequence), or speaking alone. The results
directly showed that sung texts were by far more remembered than the spoken texts. This
article is important to use for the research because it talks about those with diseases, and
how music directly helps them with something as basic as memorization.
Ridder, Hanne M., Tony Wigram, and Aase M. Ottesen. "A Pilot Study on the Effects of Music
Therapy on Frontotemporal Dementia - Developing a Research Protocol." Nordic Journal of
Music Therapy, vol. 18, no. 2, 2009, pp. 103-132. Accessed 26 March. 2017.
This article is interesting because it goes into detail about a more specific type of
dementia included in alzheimers which is frontotemporal dementia. A study was
conducted that looked at the different types of instruments used to measure quality of
life. Music therapy was used in these tests to determine specific aspects of alzheimers
that are affected when music is used.
Sacks, Oliver. Music and Identity: Dementia and Music Therapy. Musicophilia: Tales of
Music and the Brain, Vintage Books, 2008, pp. 371-385. Accessed 23 March. 2017.
This source is a book that talks all about music and how it has helped different types of
individuals. The specific chapter I looked at was related to dementia and music therapy
and how certain people with dementia had a better outlook on life once introduced to
music.
Sauer, Alissa. 5 Reasons Why Music Boosts Brain Activity. Alzheimers.net, 21 July 2014,
www.alzheimers.net/2014-07-21/why-music-boosts-brain-activity-in-dementia-patients/.
Accessed 26 Mar. 2017.
This article talks about how music helps dementia. It goes to say that music will evoke
emotions that bring memories back into view, can shift mood, manage stress, and
stimulate positive interactions. This article is a non-scholarly source that helps us see the
benefits and effectiveness of music in alzheimer patients lives.
Digital Components
Ridder, Hanne M., Tony Wigram, and Aase Marie Ottesen, Nordic Journal of Music Therapy,
Routledge, 2009, search.ebscohost.com
Rhetorical Rationale
From the start of this research paper, I originally wanted to write my paper on how music
aids in memory and learning. I first started finding sources on this topic but realized that I did not
have a strong argument. I was finding many articles about Alzheimers disease and how music
therapy and music in general were helping these types of people in their everyday lives. At this
point in the first draft phase of the project, I began to write about the effects that music therapy
has on alzheimers patients. After researching about this, I knew that I needed a strong argument
so I looked at whether music therapy was a more effective style of treatment than drugs. I found
articles on both topics and found that both are very effective and beneficial, its really just a
matter of whether or not you want to use drugs and also the effects that drugs might have on your
body negatively. My ideas developed really well throughout this paper, because the act of
researching and finding articles narrowed down my topic and argument quite a lot. The act of
writing these drafts shows that the composing process is incredibly beneficial because it allows
the writer to process their ideas and better develop something even further. For me, writing these
drafts helped me become more aware of my argument and how it needed to be revised to make
more sense. During our in-class workshops, I found that I needed to find more sources, make my
writing flow better in order for it to make sense, and make sure my argument was the strongest it
could be. After writing the first draft, I went back and revised it pretty heavily. I needed a lot
more sources especially the digital components to add to my argument of both music therapy
When looking at the multimodal aspects of this paper, I used a lot of different graphs and
pictures to help show better something I mentioned in the essay. An example would be a study
that I talked about. I would include a graph in the essay to show the results of a study so that the
reader will be able to see the effectiveness of music therapy in agitation and aggression due to
Alzheimers disease. The other sources that I used were scholarly and non-scholarly. These
sources are important because they are the basis of my research and they benefit my argument
very much. The scholarly articles that I used in my paper were a lot of studies because this was a
more study based topic that I chose to pursue my research in. Overall, the process of this
research paper was beneficial in learning more on how to write a more in depth paper such as
this. I developed a more clear argument after looking at all the sources that I gathered, because
they all had to do with my topic that I chose to research about; is music therapy more effective