By Jim Morelli
WebMD Medical News Archives
June 20, 2000 --
Music. It does a body good. Physical therapy may help keep
Parkinson's disease patients limber, but now researchers have found
that music therapy may help them move faster -- and make them
happier. This is the first time that music therapy's effect on
Parkinson's has been objectively studied, the Italian researchers
say, and their results appear in the latest issue of the journal
Psychosomatic Medicine.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive, incurable nervous system
disease that is characterized by difficulties walking, moving, and by
uncontrollable tremors. It's caused by a decrease in brain cells that
create dopamine, a chemical that is important for regulating body
movement. Often, improving patients' ability to move and walk can
help improve their well-being.
Thirty-two Parkinson's patients with mild to moderate disability
participated in the study. They were divided into two equal groups --
one group went through three months of weekly physical therapy
sessions; the other had weekly music therapy sessions. The latter
consisted of listening to music, creating it on instruments, and
moving to it rhythmically.
The researchers noted that physical therapy improved stiffness --
but did not have a significant effect on overall daily performance.
Music therapy did. Patients reported improved ability to do such
tasks as cut food and get dressed, and said they were less likely to
fall or experience the sudden freezing-up of muscles that occurs with
Parkinson's. Also patients with Parkinson's sometimes have trouble
initiating movement, and music therapy improved this problem --
possibly because of its rhythmical quality, the authors suggest.
But the patients' emotional response to the music could also have
affected their ability to move, they say, by activating a particular
pathway in the brain that is thought to help regulate some movements.
But either way, the patients were happier when listening to music,
and it increased their motivation.
Enrico Fazzini, MD, a neurologist at New York University Medical
Center, says the effectiveness of music therapy is linked to what
Parkinson's disease takes away from patients: their ability to move
automatically - for example, their ability to ride a bike without
thinking about it. "[With Parkinson's] people have to bring
walking [or biking] into their consciousness. ... They have
to bring into consciousness what was previously unconscious. Anything
that helps them do that will help them to move."
Music can do that, Fazzini says -- sometimes dramatically. "A lot
of times Parkinson's patients can dance beautifully when they can't
walk. I have people who can barely take a step, but they can dance.
Because they bring the unconscious into the conscious."
In other words, they know where to put their feet because the
music is giving them a cue: the beat. By the same token, he says,
some Parkinson's patients walk better in soft sand than on firmer
ground because they use the feeling of sinking as a prompt to raise
their feet.
Fazzini, who also runs a Parkinson's web site, says many
Parkinson's patients have to do without music therapy to help them
with activities like walking, because of the need to take music with
them. "A lot of times these people are older, and you want them to
[be able to] hear what's going on," -- such as the approach
of a car, he says.
Lucy Irizarry, a social worker for the National Parkinson's
Foundation in Miami, Fla., is a big fan of music therapy. Twice a
week she oversees 30 patients in a day care setting. She's convinced
of the importance of music in their lives. "It helps the patients use
their voice," she says. "It also helps them socially and emotionally.
The songs are the old ones. ... It stimulates them." And, she adds,
it helps them to remember.
For more information from WebMD, visit our Diseases and Conditions
Parkinson's page.
http://my.webmd.com/
