Music Therapy And Walking With Parkinson Disease Patients
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Parkinson's disease is a progressive, life-long nervous disorder, characterized by difficulty in movement, uncontrollable tremors, and slurred speech. This disease is caused by a decrease in brain cells that produce dopamine and serotonin, which are two kinds of neurotransmitters, which help in regulating body movement.
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Music therapy has been proven to be very effective in patients diagnosed with Parkinson's disease because music can actually stimulate the creation of dopamine and serotonin by the brain cells. By employing music therapy, we can improve the patient’s ability to move and walk and thereby improve his overall well-being.
Patients who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease usually have difficulty in movement, either very slow movement (bradykinesia) or too much of involuntary movement and uncontrollable tremors (dyskinesia). Music, particularly music with a fast beat and rhythm can be used to induce movement in such patients. The music must be vibrant enough to act as a stimulant and generate an impulse to move.
The basic objective is that the music must be able to evoke a response. For this to happen, the music therapist must make a very careful selection of the music. The rhythm must be stimulating and at the same time, the music must sound familiar to the patient in order to elicit a favorable response. The therapist can experiment with various rhythms and musical styles to judge the best kind of music which the patient’s mind can easily register as well as which helps the patient in improving his sense of balance and movement.
In those patients who experience dyskinesia (too much of involuntary movement and uncontrollable tremors), the urge to move can be controlled and suppressed by employing slow and soothing music, which helps their minds in relaxing and creating a sedative effect. Slow rhythmic music not only calms down the hyperactive mind and body, but it also serves to alleviate a patient's mood, thereby erasing all signs of stress, apprehensions, loneliness, depression, and anxiety.
Similarly, in patients who have been experiencing problems with articulation, music therapy can be very helpful. The speech becomes slurred because of 2 reasons: the first reason can be poor breath support while the second reason can be defects in the motor system which hampers the movement of the lips and tongue. When music therapy is administered, patients are encouraged to lip sing, hum the tune or tap their fingers and feet to create a sense of music in the patients. Repeated playing of the same notes helps them learn and spell out a single syllable. Eventually, clarity of their speech begins to improve in the patients.
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