Passive Music Therapy

Music Therapy is the use of music intervention to help accomplish an individualized goal by using what is called the Music Therapy Program. Music Therapy has been around since the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Music has been known for affecting health and behavior for a long period of time. In this study we researched the affects that the Music Therapy Program would have on patients who are in an intensive care unit. “Lee stated that medical ventilation is one of the most frequently used treatments in pediatric intensive care units for patients who are unable to maintain adequate ventilation and oxygenation.” Patients who are living with the help of mechanical ventilation have been distressed from various outside forces that cannot be

The scientists found that music could be “used as an anxiolytic medium, a method of distraction and as a relaxant, and it can also promote sleep by creating a peaceful atmosphere”. Music therapy also caused a reduction in heart and respiration rates, which will lead to less anxiety. Also in this study, scientists searched out the differences between passive and active music therapy. Passive music therapy is when one might use a “CD and portable music players, whereas active music therapy is defined as music being provided by an individual who adapts the music to the patient” (Austin 2010). Kennelly and Edwards suggested that active music therapy was better for children. This idea was, also, found that just playing music that is meant to be relaxing, such as classical music, “may not be relaxing for a child who is unfamiliar with such music” (Austin 2010). In that case, using music that the patient is more familiar with will make them feel at ease more so than music they are not familiar with, especially in a place that the patient is not used to being

The change in anxiety levels is not known because Almerud and Petersson did not set a “standardized time after extubating or being weaned off sedation for the interview to take place”, and most patients could not remember their time in the ICU. It was found that the nurse-patient relationship played a very important role in how the patient recovered. The “nurses often do not engage in the psychological care that they would if the patient could communicate verbally”. The overall lack of research and experiments in the pediatric intensive care unit and the intensive care unit “does not use highly reliable methods and sample sizes remain small” (Austin 2010). While most of the studies all show that music therapy is beneficial, the program is not enough to make the practice required everywhere. Many examples above were given to show readers the affects Music Therapy can have on patients who are in an Intensive Care Unit, but the program is used on numerous occasions that can benefit someone’s health and/or behavior; whether it be in a hospital, a school, mental home, nursing home or other