A New Form of Music Therapy for Alzheimer's and Dementia Patients

Overview

Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects the memory of elderly individuals and dementia is a disorder that also alters the memory causing individuals to be forgetful. Music therapy is a form of treatment that uses the power of music itself. This form of therapy only requires an electronic device and a set of headphones. With the use of this form of treatment, patients appear to “come back to life”, they begin to sing and communicate, thereby triggering their memory and speech capabilities by the mere sound of music.The voice of a loved one was used in a voice recording session in which vital or forgotten information about the patient's life was stated. The patient's favorite type of music in an instrumental form was assembled in the recording using NoteTracks, a user friendly application that allows individuals to join audio files and music simultaneously. Two female patients were selected and treated for three consecutive days and were given a 12 question survey before and after treatment. Patient 1 exhibited 4 out of 12, 7 out of 12; 7 out of 12, 7 out of 12; 9 out of 12; 9 out of 12,correctly answered survey questions for before and after treatment, respectively. While Patient 2, exhibited 6 out of 12, 8 out 12, 11 out of 12, both before and after treatment, respectively. According to the data, the hypothesis was accepted. Both patients portrayed an improvement in their memory skills by remembering an average of 6.6 before and 7.6 survey questions after sessions in Patient 1 while Patient 2 had an average 8.3. Their overall mood and confidence was also cultivated by the means of this new form of music therapy. With further development, this new form of music therapy has potential to improve the memory skills of Alzheimer's and Dementia patients if consistently practice.

Competition history

• ISEF 2016 Biomedical and Health Sciences · Entry BEHA018

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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