A B C D A MUSICOTERAPIA

20090629

Music as medicine | SIOBHÁN LONG

"Medics, musicians and music therapists gathered recently at a conference to try to identify what gives music its healing power

HAVE YOU EVER been at a concert and felt your mood shift inexorably in tandem with the music? Anyone who’s taken a pew at a Bobby McFerrin gig can attest to the sensory heights to which he lures his audience. Likewise, a slow air played with feeling on the pipes or the fiddle might entice a listener to a darker place that they hadn’t bargained on visiting – which might prove a welcome respite or induce an uncomfortable wince.

Musicians and music lovers alike have long recognised the healing power of music. That’s partly why we’re sometimes tempted to turn the volume up on Henryk Górecki’s Third Symphony, either to amplify an already funereal mood or to plumb emotional depths while in the company of greatness.

Earlier this month in Limerick, medics, music therapists and musicians tossed their tuppenceworth into the ring in an attempt to gain some understanding of the relationship between music and medicine. The University of Limerick’s Irish World Academy of Music and Dance hosted this inaugural conference of the International Association for Music and Medicine in association with UL’s Graduate Medical School.

At a time when Leaving Cert students are being asked to view the arts and sciences as diametrically opposed career choices in their CAO forms, there was a refreshing lack of territorialism on view at this crossroads where medicine and music intersected in the unlikeliest of ways.

Prof Jane Edwards, director of the MA in Music Therapy in UL, may have Antipodean roots, but she draws deep from the well of Irish traditional music in her exploration of the potential palliative properties of music.

“If you think of the three types of music here in Ireland: the lullaby (suantraí), the music of happiness (geantraí) and the music of sadness (goltraí),” she says, “you can see that music has been relied upon to depict emotion, and emotional states. There seems to be an implicit understanding here of the ability of music to affect you, and to lead you into a particular state. Take the music of sadness. The shared experience of creating that music with other people allows for the creation of a group expression of sadness or grief, rather than simply a sole or isolated experience.”

Making the most of the presence in Limerick of some leading international figures in the field of music therapy and medicine, Edwards organised a number of visits to three local healthcare settings, including the Mid-Western Regional Maternity and General hospitals and Milford Care Centre, a hospice and nursing home in Castletroy.

Over lunchtime presentations to staff, the visitors emphasised the potential for music to be used in hospital environments, and shared news of recent research findings which, for the first time, have begun to explain why and how music can exert a positive impact on recovery for a wide spectrum of individuals, including those with cancer, asthma, autism, cystic fibrosis and epilepsy. It can also be helpful to those who must be weaned off mechanical ventilation in intensive care units, babies in neo-natal intensive care units, those bereaved and those experiencing significant communication difficulties after strokes.

Music has also been shown to exert a positive influence on an individual’s ability to manage pain and on mothers’ ability to cope with labour pain. And let’s be honest, any woman who’s found herself, legs akimbo at the mercy of a gynaecologist, would jump at the chance to have an iPod to hand to mitigate the mechanical discomfort of the procedure.

THE POTENTIAL FOR music to soothe and sway, to support and direct patients’ recovery, straddles the boundaries of acute medicine and preventive healthcare. What’s more, it would appear that the research community is rapidly documenting its benefits and that medics are far more open to what music might have to offer than we might have expected.

Critically, given Ireland’s increasingly litigious culture, music has something to offer medical practitioners too: it can significantly reduce medical error, which, as Dr Joanne Loewy of the Louis Armstrong Centre for Music and Medicine in Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Centre says, is one of the leading causes of death in the US. There are more than 2,000 deaths per year there from unnecessary surgery, 7,000 deaths from medication errors and more than 80,000 infections contracted in hospital settings. Loewy believes that the lateral-thinking approach which sees the incessant loathsome beeps and alarms in a neo-natal intensive-care unit transformed into harmonious musical notes can contribute to increased attention on the part of the medical staff, and reduce the error rates that leave patients paying for the sins and slip-ups of their medics.

It can also enable patients to play an active rather than passive role in their health management.

“We now deliver asthma treatment programmes in schools,” Loewy explains. “Previously, this was seen as an emergency-room illness. There’s a huge denial factor with asthma, and people felt they had to be taking their last breath before they would seek out help. But they can learn, for example, to use a recorder to help regulate their own breathing. They then learn to take their own blood pressure and check their own heart rate. By doing that, they learn to take control of their own health, and music is playing a very empowering role in putting control into the hands of the individual. So their quality of life is better as a result.”

Granted, Loewy’s video clips of a guitar-playing music therapist in full scrubs serenading a pre- operative patient to sleep teetered a little too close to evangelism for this writer’s liking, but her clip of a young woman articulating, for the first time in a music therapy session, her hitherto suppressed grief for her dead father brooked few arguments from the sceptics in the room.

Here was a young woman who had been admitted to hospital and subjected to a raft of medical tests to determine the cause of her weight loss and depression. All the medication in the world couldn’t have quelled her fundamental need to express emotions so deep-seated that she herself didn’t understand how she felt until she had articulated them through music.

The use of music to unlock emotional expression in children who are ill, bereaved or suffering post-traumatically, is gaining traction in medical and paramedical circles, Edwards suggests.

“It’s more difficult for children to use the psychological mechanisms that we can use as adults,” she observes, referring to an adult’s ability to think things through in a logical manner or to compartmentalise experience so that problems are “parked” until an individual has either the time or inclination to deal with them. “If you’re four years old, it’s very hard to say, ‘I’ll deal with that later’, so sometimes children will find a way to cope by not speaking or not eating, which lead to them having to make greater psychological adjustments later on.

“Music can make a real difference in those situations, in helping children to break through those silences and those barriers.”

DR STEPHAN QUENTZEL, medical director of the Louis Armstrong Centre, spoke of the experience of a young adult with autism whose ability to communicate through music was vastly superior to his verbal communication skills. As a family physician, psychiatrist and holistic medical practitioner, Quentzel sees as a virtue the fact that his centre treats a vast array of musicians and performing artists “from Broadway to subway”.

Describing his approach to developing a model for treating musicians specifically, Quentzel presented a number of compelling case studies, including one which focused on the experience of an unnamed but highly accomplished jazz musician who had become immobile as a result of a number of medical conditions, which included diabetes, hypertension, chronic heart disease and obesity.

Music clearly played a central part in the woman’s life. Through music therapy and providing her with access to a keyboard (perched daintily across her armchair), her medical team found a route to addressing some of the emotional turmoil she was experiencing as a result of her diminished independence and increasing distance from the world of music which had been her life.

Western medicine, Quentzel claims, has to deal with a huge range of chronic stress-related conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, insomnia and anxiety. Many of these conditions occur due to the patient’s inability to regulate his or her autonomic nervous system, which produces the “fight or flight” response that was crucial when we were being chased by sabre-toothed tigers but is less frequently a requirement of modern life.

“As much as we value medicine,” Quentzel suggests, “it’s just as important that we understand the value of music, and in fact what’s also important is the relationship between the music, the patient and the music therapist. The bedrock of successful healing is the relationship between the patient and the music, so we should intentionally work that into our treatment programmes to enhance and expand our healing processes.”

DR SUZANNE HANSER is the chair of the music therapy department at Boston’s Berklee College of Music. She’s also intimately conversant with what she calls the “psychoneuroimmunology” of music. Hanser draws on research findings to explain much of what happens in music therapy, from the neural responses music causes in the brain to how it affects the immune system.

“We have this new concept now called ‘eustress’,” she explains, “which is the opposite of distress. It is a positive form of stress. Musicians have to have some form of stress to spur them on to even greater magnificence, even greater precision in their playing, and it’s that struggle and that stress that leads to the peak of creativity.”

Research is now helping us to explain this creative peak state, according to Hanser. “Nitric oxide – though not the kind that is used as dental laughing gas – is released in the brain just prior to a peak experience, and it works against the stress hormones which musicians produce when playing at their peak,” she says. “With this information, we now know that we can teach people coping strategies, cued by music, to cope with all kinds of things, such as depression and anxiety, in their daily lives. We’ve seen clinically significant changes in depression with maintenance of those gains into the longer term.”

Edwards acknowledges the restorative properties of music, but is just as keen to emphasise that it is no miracle cure. It’s a potentially powerful component of a holistic medical care programme, she suggests.

“Music therapy has some really good research findings,” she says, “about treating secondary symptoms, such as anxiety and sleeplessness, but less so about, for example, shrinking the size of a tumour. The patient’s psychological state and emotional response to their illness will have an impact on both the outcome of their treatment and on their ability to participate in everything that’s required of them. Music therapy can play a real role in how the individual adjusts to his or her personal circumstances.” (© 2009 irishtimes.com | SIOBHÁN LONG)

20090627

'Music takes older people down memory lane'

Imagem: Portal da Fisioterapia

"Older people have been singing old songs to remember times gone by, as part of a music therapy course at the Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre.

The 10-week course sees music therapist Harriet Powell co-ordinating a weekly hour-long session where she plays the accordion and piano, following the singing and taking requests to play songs that everyone can remember.

John Larkin, 79, of Regent’s Park estate, has been going to the sessions. He said:

"I find it very uplifting. I like all the old songs; being Irish I like ‘A long way to Tipperary’. It’s the songs we sang back in the 50s."

The Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre is a Camden Council-run day centre for older residents and anyone in the borough is welcome to attend.

Music therapy supports older people socially, by reducing isolation and increasing communication with others, as well as being physically relaxing and stimulating. It is grounded in the belief that everyone can respond to music, regardless of their abilities.

Harriet Powell, music therapist employed by Nordoff-Robbins, said:

"Everyone is innately musical and music therapy allows everyone to become involved, regardless of their abilities. They can use percussion instruments if they want and I follow their lead rather than leading them. The course at Charlie’s has been really well received and has made a positive difference to the people who use the centre."

Camden Council’s executive member for adult social care and health, Cllr Martin Davies, said:

"The music therapy course at the Charlie Ratchford Resource Centre is an excellent example of how we can engage with older residents."

Fonte:

Date: 26/6/09

20090618

AVISO

Caros amigos e leitores,

vou estar ausente por alguns dias pelo que não actualizarei este blogue com a regularidade desejável. Manterei a pesquisa diária e estarei atenta. Alguma questão em que possa ser útil, disponham!

Grata,
M.

Music and Medicine

Music Therapy for Neurological Conditions

by Concetta T

"One of the reasons, and one of the exciting reasons, why music therapy has so much promise for people with neurological conditions is that music accesses the networks in the brain in a complementary faction (fashion) or differently than the function that a person has lost. And what I mean by that is we can stimulate the timing mechanisms, we can stimulate word finding ability, we can stimulate recognition memory, even short-term memory function through using music in a specific way that makes available to these patients function in the brain that’s still there but maybe they can’t get at independently because of the inhibition that has taken place due to their brain injury.

So music is an enriched sensory stimulus that allows for, I believe, the disinhibition of some of the inhibited function that has been lost in these individuals. And by stimulating these complementary or parallel networks, we see this type of ability come back." (Concetta Tomaino, D.A., MT-BC, LCAT)

20090616

Uma perca inestimável! Belgais vai fechar!

Vídeo de pintonix

Leia a notícia completa no PÚBLICO.PT: "Projecto da pianista Maria João Pires - Belgais vai fechar por arresto de bens"

Mais uma vez, Portugal no seu melhor!

20090615

Dançar | Paralisia cerebral

Fonte: RTP

"Estima-se que, em Portugal, surjam, por ano, entre cento e cinquenta e duzentos novos casos de paralisia cerebral. Os números reais não são conhecidos, até porque há pais, que só procuram ajuda quando os filhos já têm idade avançada. Quem trabalha nas Associações de Paralisia Cerebral garante que, hoje em dia, a diferença já é melhor aceite, mas sublinha que ainda há um longo caminho a percorrer." (RTP | Dança pode ser usada como terapia nos casos de paralisia cerebral)

20090614

Musicoterapia e Alzheimer

The Songs They Can’t Forget

By Sara Davidson

"Tom was a wanderer. When his wife, Elsie, came to visit him at a care unit for patients with dementia, he would give her a perfunctory kiss, then wander off through the rooms and stare out the window. Elsie tried to walk with him and hold hands, but he would shake her off, leaving her heartsick.

A music therapist at the facility, Alicia Clair, was searching for ways to help couples like Elsie and Tom connect. Ms. Clair asked Elsie if she’d like to try dancing with Tom, then put on some music from the ’40s — Frank Sinatra singing “Time after Time.” Ms. Clair said recently, “I knew Tom was a World War II vet, and vets did a lot of ballroom dancing.”

As Sinatra began singing, Elsie opened her arms, beckoning. Tom stared a moment, then walked over and began leading her in the foxtrot. “They danced for thirty minutes!” Ms. Clair said. When they were finished, Elsie broke down and sobbed. “I haven’t been held by my husband in three years,” she told Ms. Clair. “Thank you for bringing him back.”

Ms. Clair, a professor of music therapy at the University of Kansas, tells this story to show how music can reach people with Alzheimer’s disease. Music has the power to bypass the mind and wash through us, triggering strong feelings and cueing the body to synchronize with its rhythm.

Researchers and clinicians are finding that when all other means of communication have shut down, people remember and respond to music. Familiar songs can help people with dementia relate to others, move more easily and experience joy. Tom had forgotten his name and couldn’t utter one word, but hearing Sinatra prompted him to dance.

Music memory is preserved better than verbal memory, according to Ms. Clair, because music, unlike language, is not seated in a specific area of the brain but processed across many parts. “You can’t rub out music unless the brain is completely gone.”

Ms. Clair noted, too, that Alzheimer’s is retrograde: “Things fall off in the opposite order from the way they were acquired.” So if someone sang to you as a baby, before you even knew words, you’ll respond to music after words are gone.

The discipline of music therapy (MT) was established in 1950, and last year close to a million people received MT services in hospitals, care facilities, hospices and schools. MT is not merely playing music for people, although that’s beneficial. Practitioners are skilled musicians who play instruments and sing, then are trained and certified to use music for therapeutic purposes.

Patients with a wide range of ailments — from children with disabilities to burn victims to people with Parkinson’s disease and stroke — have experienced the ability of MT to speed healing, improve mood and increase mobility. In a study published by the American Society of Neurorehabilitation, music therapy and conventional physical therapy were given to two groups of stroke victims who could barely walk. The group who received music therapy showed greater improvement in walking in a shorter period of time than those getting physical therapy.

My daughter, Rachel Strauss, who’s studying for a master’s degree in MT, said, “It works faster to relax people than any drug. It’s cost effective and has no side effects.”

There’s been a burst of interest in MT for people with Alzheimer’s. Kate Gfeller, who directs the graduate MT program at the University of Iowa, published a study in the Journal of Music Therapy finding that activities like moving to music, playing rhythm instruments and singing led to more group involvement and less wandering and disruptive behavior among 51 patients with dementia in five nursing facilities.

Other studies demonstrate that MT can slow the progress of Alzheimer’s, relieve pain and create emotional intimacy. The goal, Ms. Gfeller said, is to keep people functioning at their present level as long as possible: “We can’t reverse the disease, but we can make the quality of each day as good as it can be.”

Not just any music will do, though. The trick is finding out what music was popular when the patient was a teen and young adult. Ms. Gfeller said those years are such a powerful time in developing autonomy — a time of first love, learning to drive, getting the first home of one’s own — that people will play the music they heard during those years all their lives, and recall it the longest.

I remember visiting my grandfather, Louie Wass, when he was hospitalized with dementia, lying in bed, unable to talk. I started singing a Hungarian song he’d learned as a youth and later taught to me, “Territch-ka.” I sang the verse and when I stopped, he opened his mouth and sang the chorus: “Yoy, Territch-ka!” Right on key.

My daughter has asked me to send her books of music from the ’60s because, she said, “Boomers will be the next generation in the nursing facilities.” That was cheering. With the generation currently in these facilities, she uses songs like “A Bicycle Built for Two.” She likes those songs but said, “Your generation will be awesome — we’ll get to play the Beatles.”

Sara Davidson can be reached at saradavidson.com.

Fonte: The New York Times Company

20090613

A falta de critérios é impressionante!!! Vale tudo :-|

http://www.ismt.pt/ismt/pt/pos_graduacoes/musicoterapia.html

A verdadeira inclusão! | Pianista natos

"Nobuyuki Tsujii plays Chopin Twelve Etudes, Op.1o during the preliminary round of the 13th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition on May 23, 2009. " (VanCliburnFoundation)

Comentário pessoal: 'Nunca' tive mãos para tocar este estudo (primeira peça do vídeo)! E ... se tentei :-) Não é para todos!

Blazing a New Path in Classical Music
...

Blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii takes cues from conductors’ breathing, learns pieces by listening

Classical pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii listens to the conductor’s breathing for cues, since he can’t see the baton. On stage, he feels for the edges of the keyboard before he begins playing, to orient his hands. He learns new pieces through listening and memorization, rather than reading the notes. The 20-year-old Japanese musician last weekend became the first blind pianist to win the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

“I’m handicapped, but I have overcome it” he said at a crowded press conference in Tokyo Wednesday.[...]" (By JULIET CHUNG AND MIHO INADA)

20090611

"All I Need"

"MTV and Radiohead have teamed to address the exploitation and slavery of children around the world; turns out their against that stuff. But seriously, as part of the teen soap opera channel's EXIT (End eXploitation and Trafficking) campaign, an effort to combat the horrendous practices of selling children into the sex or enforced labor industries, a Radiohead video will, well-- according to the Hollywood Reporter-- premiere on MTV on Thursday. And yet, it was on their web site, and now it's posted down there." (KipperThaDowag)

20090609

O que se sente ao ver e ouvir?

20090608

'Musicians with Disabilities Rock Out in "Rudely Interrupted"

Film Clip (rudelyinterrupted)

Site oficial da banda: http://www.rudelyinterrupted.com/index.php

"Lead singer Rory Burnside has no patience for distraction, a trait which led to his hot Australian indie-style band’s name. But patience isn’t the only thing Rory lacks. He was born without eyes, and has a cleft palate and lip in addition to Asperger syndrome.
But what he’s missing in sight, he makes up for in hearing. Rory has absolutely perfect pitch, and he can instantly name any note that is played. His dad is a record producer, so he grew up around music. But it’s his devoted mom who put a law degree on hold to help Rory get a diploma in music performance.
“She’s always there when I’m going through hard times,” Rory says. “She’s gorgeous. She means the world (to me). How she hasn’t murdered me with what I’ve put her through in 22 years, I will never know.”

Band Members Have Range of Disabilities

Five of the six members of this Melbourne group that’s dominating airwaves Down Under have disability in common. Drummer Josh is autistic, Marcus on synthesizer has Asperger’s and is hearing impaired, and bassist Sam has Down syndrome just like Constance, who serves as a human metronome on tambourine and bass while legally blind. Apart from their disabilities, what they have in common is a desire to express themselves through music.
The band’s manager, guitarist and backup vocalist Rohan Brooks (who once toured the U.S. with Sloan and Jet) admits that he was “just crazy enough to form the band.” He met Rory at a barbecue a friend was having. The other Rudely Interrupted members attended the disability day service where Rohan was working as a music therapist.
The 36-year-old guitarist admits that it was three months before the group could play a note together. There were tantrums at the beginning, and days when each member stomped out of rehearsal. But now six hours is usually enough time for the band to hammer out all the parts of a song.
“Every gig is kind of emotional,” Rohan says. “When the guys get up on stage you can tell something’s not quite right, but then once we start playing everybody just gets right into it. There’s a lot of tears at our gigs – tears of joy.”

“The Rudies” Garner Praise

“Don’t Break My Heart” is the band’s breakout single and music video that has generated a growing fan base in their native country and around the world. “The Rudies,” as the band is affectionately known by their loyal listeners, have evolved from playing the Aussie underground to performing for a packed house at UN’s global headquarters in New York. Sold-out shows in NYC, Canada and Great Britain followed.
Praise for the band has come from many quarters. Sydney’s The Age Good Weekend Magazine wrote: “Their music is some of the most energetic and genuine to emerge from the Australian rock ‘n’ roll underground in recent times. Their songs lift the band above the realm of novelty and give them a cultural cachet in the image-obsessed world of indie rock.”
Eye Weekly Canada gushed, “With a recorded output of only four songs, Rudely Interrupted manage to out-anthem The Killers, while injecting disaffected confidence into their tunes.” And Vice TV praises the “extremely well-crafted music by a bunch of guys who happen to be saddled with slightly wonky sets of genes,” while labeling their lead single “mercilessly infectious.”
With a rockumentary of their United Nations tour in the can and a new album, Tragedy of the Commons, recorded, the future looks bright for the Rudies. The band is booked for a tour of Australia in 2009, then jets to the U.S. in 2010 for a series of gigs ending with the prestigious International VSA arts Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC." (Debbie Marsh, Disaboom)

See Related Video and Articles:

20090607

Curiosidades | ... relembrando a 'teoria do éthos'

Geography And History Shape Genetic Differences In Humans

"New research indicates that natural selection may shape the human genome much more slowly than previously thought. Other factors -- the movements of humans within and among continents, the expansions and contractions of populations, and the vagaries of genetic chance – have heavily influenced the distribution of genetic variations in populations around the world.

[...]

The researchers found that many previously identified genetic signals of selection may have been created by historical and demographic factors rather than by selection. When the team compared closely related populations they found few large genetic differences. If the individual populations' environments were exerting strong selective pressure, such differences should have been apparent. [...]" (ScienceDaily 7 June 2009)

20090606

Muito mais do que Dançaterapia!

"Since 2006, In CMR do Alcoitão (Estoril - Portugal) exists a Project that is using the benefits of Dance, as therapy for people with disabilities.
This project is the author of Prof ª Ana Falcao named by "Dance Terapy".T he objectives are to stimulate and develop the cognitive processes of reasoning, coordination, interaction, improved self-esteem, self-confidence, improving the quality of life and better integration in society (amonge others). Date : 3/12/2008 | Contact : nacr-cmra@scml.pt" (brunolopez82)

20090605

Qual a legitimidade da Associação Portuguesa de Musicoterapia para decidir quem é ou não é musicoterapeuta em Portugal?

Gostaria de saber qual o enquadramento legal para que a Associação Portuguesa de Musicoterapia se considere apta para proceder ao registo e certificação de musicoterapeutas. E já agora, passo a citar alguns dos parágrafos que considero, no mínimo, infelizes já que a APMT (da qual fui sócia fundadora) é uma organização sem fins lucrativos ...

"[...] 10. Valor dos pagamentos referentes à candidatura, emissão de certificado e renovação do mesmo por parte da APMT:

Apresentação de pedido de acreditação e processo de avaliação do candidato: Sessenta Euros (60 €)

Emissão do Diploma de Musicoterapeuta Certificado (MTC): Cento e Cinquenta Euros (150 €)

Renovação pelo período de um ano do Título de Musicoterapeuta Certificado: Cem Euros (100 €)

Estes valores, bem como a sua eventual actualização em anos posteriores, serão aprovados em Assembleia Geral da APMT."

O documento é, se não me engano, de 2007. A ultima vez que o site foi actualizado foi em 2008.

Continuando ... No ponto 11 acrescenta-se:

"O processo de candidatura ao título de Musicoterapeuta Certificado, emitido pela Associação Portuguesa de Musicoterapia (APMT) pressupõe a inscrição como sócio nesta mesma Associação, sujeita aos direitos e deveres definidos nos Estatutos da APMT. [...] " (Fonte: site da APMT |REGISTO/CERTIFICAÇÃO DO MUSICOTERAPEUTA - Requisitos para a Certificação do Musicoterapeuta em Portugal)