Feel the music and get better!

THIS IS music to the ears for psychiatric patients. The Psychiatry Department of the KGMU is using music therapy on them to cut down on sedatives and medication. Music therapy helps patients suffering from psychiatric disorders heal faster, say specialists and add that a proper medication must support this effort.

THIS IS music to the ears for psychiatric patients. The Psychiatry Department of the KGMU is using music therapy on them to cut down on sedatives and medication. Music therapy helps patients suffering from psychiatric disorders heal faster, say specialists and add that a proper medication must support this effort.

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Anant Kumar Baruah, music therapist at the Psychiatry Department of KGMU, says, “The patients with psychiatric disorders are unable to control their thought processes. Their mind keeps wandering all the time. We use music therapy to help them concentrate. Patients feel relaxed when they listen to the music of their choice and feel better.” The patients admitted to the psychiatry ward are administered to music therapy everyday. “They are first given a group music therapy. This is just to know their particular music tastes. A patient while listening to a song tries to associate himself with the song and his face reacts accordingly and that is a crucial time for us as we get to know what type of music he should be treated with.” “Human body has a ‘taal’ and music has ‘taal’.

When the ‘taal’ of the body matches the ‘taal’ of the music then a parson likes the music. If a patient is made to hear the music that does not match the ‘taal’ of his body then he gets irritated,” adds Baruah. Raga Bageshwari is one of the rare ragas that controls the mind overwhelmed by despair and defeat. It is most stimulating raga for mind.

Music interests patients according to their age. He says some people like Indian classical music, some like bhajans and ghazal and some like film music. “I love to sing for my patients. I feel that the patients feel better when I sing for them as then they have a visual in front of their eyes and can hold their concentration for a longer time. I also encourage them to sing along and dance if they want to. Their participation is crucial for the therapy to be successful,” he says.

Experts say that listening to appropriate music lowers blood pressure, stabilises heart rate, relieves depression, reduces pre-treatment anxiety, enhances concentration and creativity and lessens the need for sedatives and painkillers.