Music therapy may aid stroke patients

Wednesday July 7th, 2010

Music therapy may help patients recover their movements after a stroke, researchers said today.

Many stroke patients suffer brain injuries that affect their movement and language abilities, leading to significant loss of quality of life.

Dr Joke Bradt of the Arts and Quality of Life Research Centre at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA, carried out a Cochrane Systematic Review of music in recovery from brain injury.

Music therapists use techniques that aim to stimulate brain functions, for example rhythmic auditory stimulation which focuses on the connections between rhythm and movement.

The team reviewed seven small studies involving 184 patients. Four studies used stroke patients only, the remainder included other brain injured patients.

Dr Bradt said: "This review shows encouraging results for the effects of music therapy in stroke patients. As most of the studies we looked at used rhythm-based methods, we suggest that rhythm may be a primary factor in music therapy approaches to treating stroke."

Rhythmic auditory stimulation therapy improved walking speed by an average of 14 metres per minute, compared to standard movement therapy. It also helped patients to take longer steps and may improve arm movements, such as elbow extension.

But the evidence was "limited" for other music therapy techniques, including listening to live and recorded music. These approaches were used to improve speech, behaviour and pain in brain injured patients, but several of the trials had less than 20 participants.

Dr Bradt concluded: "It is expected that larger samples sizes will be used in future studies to enable sound recommendations for clinical practice."

Bradt J, Magee WL, Dileo C, Wheeler BL, McGilloway E. Music therapy for acquired brain injury. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2010, Issue 7.

Tags: Alternative Therapy | Brain & Neurology | North America

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