Does music affect the behavior of adolescents? This is one of the most frequent questions I get when I go out to speak around the country. I think it’s a bit of a rhetorical questions because we know that music is powerful and does affect people’s behavior, but especially people who are unsure of themselves, who they are, and what they really want out of life. This fits the description of many adolescents. When teenagers feel alienated from peers and family, they are more prone to identify with powerful media personalities and do some vicarious living through them. If these media personalities sing violent music with violent, negative lyrics, it is going to take a toll on them and the adolescent may actually commit violent acts under the influence of this powerful “music.”

I think you’ll enjoy what this physician has to say about it:

by Steve Toll and Linda Bareham

What better “medicine” than a “treatment” that has only positive side effects and “therapy” that is actually enjoyable? That is the “miracle of music” when applied with intention. Music is shown to have the ability to help organize the brain; especially vital to those who are afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

Usually after twenty minutes of music, there are observable effects, such as singing, foot tapping, and clapping. Studies have shown that the results of a musical therapy session last for several hours afterward. Positive results include elevated mood, increased socialization and appetite and reduction in agitation. These benefits are attributed to the stimulation the brain receives during a music therapy session, a sort of “cognitive workout” inspiring us to coin the phrase, “What exercise is to the body, music is to the brain.” The power of music often inspires physical movement and can be used in combination to encourage gentle exercise.

As speech, writing and traditional forms of communication are compromised, music provides an alternative means of maintaining a connection, thereby helping to normalize interaction between caregiver and patient. Music used therapeutically creates an environment where the patient can be nurtured and cared for in a way that is safe, gentle and appropriate. Music is central to maintaining human bonds when those with dementia have lost the ability to initiate communication or to respond verbally.

The powers of music when focused and used therapeutically are many. Critical to maintaining quality of life for those with Alzheimer’s is management of emotions and preserving the connection with others. Music is conducive to keeping those connections strong as long as possible while helping the participant to focus, increase awareness and orient to the environment. A number of research studies have looked at music therapy as an important adjunct to medical treatment and findings suggest a possible link between the use of music and slowing the progression of dementia.

From the rhythms of the heartbeat experienced in the womb to the stirring sounds of a marching band, rhythmic patterns and music surround us. Language itself has a musical quality to it and from the beginning of mankind, as expressed through chanting and drumming, resembled music more closely than speech. Music is primal to life and expressed by each of us every day whether through dancing to a favorite tune, keeping rhythm with a pencil or remembering a special time when hearing a forgotten melody. It is central to our lives and is embedded in our culture, defining how we acknowledge milestones, rites of passage and celebrations as well as providing comfort, transformation and inspiration. Music links us to our world and provides a pathway back to our past.

You don’t need to have any special musical training to institute a therapeutic music program. You will need to select appropriate music, however. This music consists of familiar tunes from the 30s, 40s and 50s with more contemporary music included, depending on the preference or age of the participant. Before you invest in any CDs, check in your own home for possible sources of music. Your local library is a good source. Consider individual preferences and select music that is singable and upbeat.

Steve Toll, a professional musician and trainer, and his wife Linda Bareham, a writer and researcher in the area of alternative therapies for seniors with dementia, formed the company Prescription-Music. Mr. Toll is on the Speaker’s Board for the National Alzheimer’s Association and trains professional and family caregivers in the development of music therapy programs where his intent is to spread the word of the healing power of music for those afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

Click here to purchase music for Alzheimer’s

Nearly one-quarter of all Americans avoid dentists because they’re afraid, according to American Dental Association surveys. And the fear comes in many forms.

In an attempt to win back fearful patients, dentists like Dr. Eda Ellis in New York offer spa-like services. WSJ’s health columnist Melinda Beck reports.

There’s fear of pain, fear of needles, fear of drills, fear of blood, fear of gagging, fear of feeling helpless or having personal space violated, fear of being lectured for not brushing or flossing adequately and fear of being admonished for staying away so long.

“I even hate that sucky thing that vacuums up your saliva,” says Carolyn Moody, a Bridgewater, N.J., mother of three who avoided dentists for 10 years. Now she makes sure to bring her iPod. “As soon as I hear that drill, even from another room, my fists clench, my body stiffens and my heart starts pounding,” she adds.

Of course, delaying cleanings and checkups only compounds dental problems. Neglected plaque creates cavities; cavities can lead to root canals; root canals require crowns and eventually implants or dentures or worse, a mouthful of toothless gums. Some oral-health problems also send bacteria into the bloodstream, raising the risk of heart attack, diabetes and dementia.

Now, many dentists are taking pains to win frightened patients back. Some practices let patients virtually sleep through the procedure. Others focus on maximizing soothing distractions while minimizing pain as well as the typical sounds and smells of dentistry that can trigger unpleasant memories.

Dental schools are also paying more attention to communication skills. At New York University College of Dentistry, third-year students practice interviewing patients—played by actors—with a variety of dental problems and phobias.

“You can’t just say, ‘Open up—you have nothing to fear,’ ” says psychologist Hillary Broder, who teaches the course. “You have to establish a rapport and find out what makes them anxious and reassure them that that’s not going to happen.”

“There is usually something that triggers that phobia, like a bad experience when they were a child,” says David Hershkowitz, associate chairman of the school’s department of Cariology and Comprehensive Care. He tells students, “Once you know the trigger point, you can do away with the fear.”

To be sure, not all dentists want to treat anxious patients. “There’s a fair number of dentists who are more phobic of the phobic patients than the phobic patients are of dentistry. They’re difficult to work on and you can’t work at your normal pace says George Kivowitz who has dental practices in New York City and Newtown, Pa. But he finds that kindness and communication can go a long way toward calming patients. “I promise that if I see an area of decay, I don’t have to prove it to you by peeling you off the ceiling.”

Other dentists aren’t eager to work with anxious patients, others have built their practices around treating them. “I have some who go into a full-blown panic attack, shaking uncontrollably, when I merely look in their mouths with a mirror. That’s my flock,” says Manhattan dentist Louis Siegelman.

Feeling Groggy

For some such patients, being asleep or close to it may be the only way to endure dental procedures—even routine cleanings. “You have to meet the patients where they are,” says Dr. Siegelman.

The mildest and most common form of sedation, nitrous oxide—or “laughing gas”—has been used in dentistry since the frontier days and is still considered effective for reducing pain and relieving anxiety. About 35% of dentists offer it. But some patients can’t tolerate wearing a mask over their nose during the dental work, and in rare cases, it can make people more jittery and anxious instead of less.

Oral conscious sedation, in which patients take a tranquillizer such as Halcion or Versed before the visit, puts them into a relaxed and sleepy state although they can still respond to the dentist’s commands. Patients may have little memory of the dental work, but are so groggy they must be accompanied to and from the dentist’s office.

Intravenous sedation gives patients an even greater feeling of being “out,” and can be very useful for extensive gum or implant surgery. It also works quickly and can be increased or counteracted quickly, if necessary. But it does require a needle. The patient’s heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen intake must be monitored in case of cardiac arrest or other problems. And the dentist needs additional training and certification as well as higher malpractice insurance to cover the added risk. General anesthesia, in which the patient is unconscious and unable to respond to commands, is mainly used for oral surgery. That requires even more specialized training.

Costs of sedation, which range from about $50 for nitrous oxide to $350 for IV drugs, are rarely covered by insurance. But some dentists throw it in for free if a patient is having extensive work. Anxious patients often need considerable dental repairs, particularly if they’ve been fugitives from dentistry for years, and many opt to have it all done at once while they are under sedation.

Minimizing Pain

New techniques and tools have made many aspects of dentistry less off-putting than they used to be.

Some dentists and hygienists offer lidocaine spray, gel or patches to numb patients’ teeth and gums even for routine cleanings. Many also wear magnifying loupes that allow them to give patients more personal space. “We can stand about 18 inches away now, rather than six or 12 inches,” says Dr. Hershkowitz.

Electric drills are quieter than older models that were driven by compressed air. In some cases, ultra-quiet lasers can be used instead of drills, but they have many limitations and don’t eliminate the need for anesthesia.

Devices that emit low-dose electrical pulses to block pain pathways right through the skin can be used in place of anesthesia for some procedures.

Unfortunately for the needle phobic, much dental work still requires an injection of local anesthetic—but there, too, there are innovations. For one thing, dental needles used to be sterilized and re-used, getting blunter and more painful to inject each time. Now, needles are used only once.

Numbing gel can also minimize the pain of the stick, but what hurts most about dental injections is the pressure of 1.7 milliliters of fluid pushing into dense tissue. One computerized device called The Wand controls the flow, volume and pressure of the injection and looks more like a pen than a needle. Dr. Kivowitz says that manually delivering an injection very slowly can minimize pain just as well. “Do they ever love it? No,” he says. “But if they understand what you’re doing, it helps a lot.”

He also notes that many anesthetics contain adrenaline, which makes them last longer but can send a patient’s heart racing and trigger panic attacks. It pays to warn patients of the possibility in advance, he says: “Any unexpected thing that happens in the chair just adds to the phobia.”

Maximizing Distractions

Taking a cue from pediatric practices, some dentists offer an array of entertainment options to keep patients’ minds off the drilling and filling, from flat-screen TVs to headphones to virtual-reality goggles for watching 3-D movies.

Some also boast spa-like comforts, such as massaging chairs, warm neck rolls, paraffin wax treatments for hands and reflexology, the traditional Chinese foot massage.

“Mondays and Wednesdays are ‘spa-days.’ We’re very busy then,” says dentist Eda Ellis at Central Park Dental Spa in New York, which also has a waterfall and aromatherapy candles in the waiting room. “Patients love it. THey say, ‘Wait, it’s over so fast?’ ” she says.

What can patients do themselves to alleviate their anxiety? Bring your own distractions—a riveting book, a music player full of transporting tunes or favorite movies if your dentist is equipped to play them.

“Some of my patients have done yoga and they are somewhere else in their minds while I’m working,” says Dr. Hershkowitz who has a private practice in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Behavioral psychotherapists can teach ways to overcome anxiety. Some people find that hypnosis helps them relax, and some hypnotherapists can provide sessions by phone before dental visits.

Don’t try to self-medicate. Drinking alcohol before a dental visit is an especially bad idea. An over-the-counter pain reliever may take the edge off pain, but some forms increase bleeding. Be sure to tell the dentist about any medications you are taking.

Tell the dentist and the staff about your fears. And shop around until you find a practice that is empathetic.

In the meantime, take very good care of your teeth and gums. The healthier they are, the more pleasant every dental visit will be.

—Take a video visit to a New York dental spa, at WSJ.com/Health.

Write to Melinda Beck at HealthJournal@wsj.com

The performer is actually a neuroscientist and had the ability to have a little keyboard created and take it into an MRI machine to show the difference between the brain processing pre-composed music and the brain processing improvised music. What do you prefer?

 This morning at the University of Louisville School of Music, a fascinating lecture was delivered by Barbara Else, a certified music therapist from Tucson, Arizona.  As a matter of fact, she was called in almost immediately after the shootings there just two weeks ago.

Here’s the story from our local news station: 

Jan. 7, 2011 1:17 PM ET

New YORK (AP) — Whether it’s the Beatles or Beethoven, people like music for the same reason they like eating or having sex: It makes the brain release a chemical that gives pleasure, a new study says.

The brain substance is involved both in anticipating a particularly thrilling musical moment and in feeling the rush from it, researchers found.

Previous work had already suggested a role for dopamine, a substance brain cells release to communicate with each other. But the new work, which scanned people’s brains as they listened to music, shows it happening directly.

While dopamine normally helps us feel the pleasure of eating or having sex, it also helps produce euphoria from illegal drugs. It’s active in particular circuits of the brain.

The tie to dopamine helps explain why music is so widely popular across cultures, Robert Zatorre and Valorie Salimpoor of McGill University in Montreal write in an article posted online Sunday by the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The study used only instrumental music, showing that voices aren’t necessary to produce the dopamine response, Salimpoor said. It will take further work to study how voices might contribute to the pleasure effect, she said.

The researchers described brain-scanning experiments with eight volunteers who were chosen because they reliably felt chills from particular moments in some favorite pieces of music. That characteristic let the experimenters study how the brain handles both anticipation and arrival of a musical rush.

Results suggested that people who enjoy music but don’t feel chills are also experiencing dopamine’s effects, Zatorre said.

PET scans showed the participants’ brains pumped out more dopamine in a region called the striatum when listening to favorite pieces of music than when hearing other pieces. Functional MRI scans showed where and when those releases happened.

Dopamine surged in one part of the striatum during the 15 seconds leading up to a thrilling moment, and a different part when that musical highlight finally arrived.

Zatorre said that makes sense: The area linked to anticipation connects with parts of the brain involved with making predictions and responding to the environment, while the area reacting to the peak moment itself is linked to the brain’s limbic system, which is involved in emotion.

The study volunteers chose a wide range of music — from classical and jazz to punk, tango and even bagpipes. The most popular were Barber’s Adagio for Strings, the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Debussy’s Claire de Lune.

Since they already knew the musical pieces they listened to, it wasn’t possible to tell whether the anticipation reaction came from memory or the natural feel people develop for how music unfolds, Zatorre said. That question is under study, too.

Dr. Gottfried Schlaug, an expert on music and the brain at Harvard Medical School, called the study “remarkable” for the combination of techniques it used.

While experts had indirect indications that music taps into the dopamine system, he said, the new work “really nails it.”

Music isn’t the only cultural experience that affects the brain’s reward circuitry. Other researchers recently showed a link when people studied artwork.

I was thrilled to open my local newspaper this morning (the Louisville Courier-Journal) and find a major news story about how music is being used in Kentucky nursing homes to prompt the staff to re-position patients who are bed-ridden.  Enjoy!

Bedsores can be a serious problem for the elderly, but a University of Cincinnati study aims to curb them at Kentucky nursing homes with the help of music.

Every two hours, music plays over a loudspeaker, prompting caregivers to stop what they’re doing and make sure residents are re-positioned to keep bedsores from forming.

Researchers are partnering with Signature HealthCARE to conduct the study at 10 of the company’s Kentucky homes, including two in Louisville.

“We love it,” said Kelly Thompson, administrator of Signature HealthCARE of East Louisville, which is part of the study group. “They let you pick your music … and everybody knows it’s time for moving.”

“Repositioning people is not something new; what’s new is the prompt,” said Pam Larimore-Skinner, director of nursing at Signature HealthCARE of Trimble County in Bedford, Ky., which also is participating. “I think it makes people more conscious of the two hours because time can get away from you.”

Bedsores, also called pressure sores or pressure ulcers, are damaged areas of skin caused by staying in one position too long. People who are bedridden or use wheelchairs are at greater risk for these sores, which can lead to serious infections that can even be life-threatening. The problem is on the rise nationally.

Medical guidelines say patients should be moved at least every two hours. But nationally, “we know that the compliance of staff is frequently not what we want it to be,” said Elaine Miller, a UC nursing professor.

Researchers from the UC College of Nursing got a two-year, $300,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to look at whether a simple audio reminder can prompt a nurse-led team to make sure patients move or get moved. The Cincinnati team competed with more than 100 other applicants for the funds.

In the study, four nursing homes used the program since the spring, while another four “comparison” homes were observed for months, then began using the program in November. Two others had problems with intercoms and have been used as comparisons throughout.

“The study involves the ambulatory residents, who can get up themselves, and the bedridden, who need to be turned with the assistance of staff,” said Assistant Professor Tracey Yap, principal investigator on the study. “The musical prompt is a reminder for patients that ‘you need to get up’ and for staff that this is the time to move those who cannot do so themselves.”

Local nursing home officials said their entire staffs are involved in the project, from nurses to administrators to housekeeping workers. Anyone who needs hands-on assistance gets help from the nursing staff, Yap said, while other employees can give verbal reminders to those who don’t need such help.

“It’s a team project,” Yap said. “That’s the innovative part of it.”

Officials said they vary the music so it doesn’t get repetitive or easy to tune out. Larimore-Skinner said her nursing home has played small bursts of everything from classical to country to holiday music.

Thompson and Larimore-Skinner said their facilities are doing well when it comes to pressure sores, and the study program may be one reason. Larimore-Skinner said none of her 49 residents have developed sores in the home, and Thompson said her facility, which has 115 residents, does better than the national average on pressure sores.

Both women said their homes may continue the practice after the study ends in April.

“If it works,” Larimore-Skinner said, “don’t fix what’s not broken.”

By Laura Ungar • lungar@courier-journal.com • December 31, 2010

Healing music can be most anything that YOU find calming, soothing, comforting or energizing.  Music that has positive and pleasant associations is music that will be healing for you.  So it was not a surprise to me to hear that one of the trapped Chilean miners that loved Elvis Pressley, chose to have singalongs of many of Elvis’ top hits.  Enjoy this story:

Chilean miner Edison Peña Villarroel on Wednesday was invited to visit Graceland in Memphis, the mansion that legend Elvis Presley once called his home.

Villarroel, 34, was safely rescued on Wednesday after being trapped for more than two months underground at the San José copper-gold mine in northern Chile. It was one of the most complex rescue operations in history that continues nearly a day later to rescue his fellow miners.

The miner is a self-described Elvis Presley fan who sent a request for Presley’s music to be sent down the mine while he was trapped underground. There he played Presley’s music and kept spirits up by organizing sing-alongs with the 32 other miners.

Hours after Villarroel’s successful rescue, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. announced that it would like to invite him to Presley’s former home. “Graceland would like to welcome home Edison Peña, and along with the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau, has extended a special invitation for him and a loved one to visit Elvis’ home in Memphis,” a statement said.

“We are so glad he is safe, and wish the very best for the other miners still awaiting their rescue,” the statement added. It was not immediately known if Vallarroel would accept the invitation.

Elvis Presley, often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll”, died on August 16, 1977 after he was found unresponsive on his bathroom floor at Graceland. He was 42.

The crisis at the mine began on August 5 when a part of the San José copper-gold mine in northern Chile collapsed, leaving 33 miners trapped 700 meters (2,300 feet) underground. More than two weeks later, relatives and rescue workers were shocked but relieved to find that the miners had survived and were in a good condition.

Over the next two months, rescue workers drilled several holes to lower a capsule down the shaft to evacuate the miners one by one. It was a process that was initially expected to take until Christmas, if not longer, but was already completed last week.