Alive Inside - music therapy for Alzheimer's/dementia

[O2Bfree]

DH and I just watched the documentary Alive Inside, which is about using music as therapy for people who have Alzheimer's or dementia. Highly recommended if you have a loved one going in that direction. Wish I'd seen it while my dad was still alive.

Here's a clip from the film:

A quote from one of the researchers:

"I have spent 38 years now working on Alzheimer's disease, and I haven't done anything for patients that's as effective as the music therapy is. I wish I had, and I'm still trying. But I really haven't seen anything as positive as that."


Maybe the study of how music affects the brain will open up new fields of research and treatment for these ailments, in addition to the adoption of music therapy as treatment.

 

[Texas Proud]

They do some music at my mom's memory care...


Plus, they play old movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s....


But some of these are much worse than the guy in the video...

 

[O2Bfree]

They do some music at my mom's memory care...


Plus, they play old movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s....


But some of these are much worse than the guy in the video...

In the full-length documentary they talk about the importance of personalized music, songs that are especially meaningful to the individual. Volunteers work with each patient and their family, if available, to find out what songs the patient most loved when they were younger.

I've visited several memory care places, and don't recall seeing anyone with headphones. Seems odd, now that I think about it. In one place, there was a woman with Alzheimer's who moaned and yelled constantly. The only time I saw her calm down and engage with someone was when one of the caregivers sat with her and sang, "You are my sunshine".

 

[Freedom56]

I'm not surprised. Music is very therapeutic. I sometimes just sit down and play keyboards or guitar for hours just to relax and unwind. It's also challenging to learn songs from artists from the past that you grew up with. it keeps your brain active.

 

[WestUniversity]

I wish I had thought to do this with my mom. So much of who she had been was stolen by this horrible disease I don’t know if it would have done and good...

 

[target2019]

MP3 player with custom Playlist, and headphones has very noticeable positive effect.

 

[RonBoyd]

Also see: From the current AARP Bulletin - Using Humor to Combat Dementia

Seeing this relationship blossom over these months — held together by gales of laughter — has convinced me that so many people, at every stage of life, could use a person with the gift of wit and timing to spend time with, to show them it is still possible to be moved to laughter. To feel, if only for that brief moment of joy, that they aren’t done yet — and that’s a good thing.

Humor therapy can be as effective as some drugs in managing agitation in dementia patients. That’s according to research at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

 

[O2Bfree]

I wonder if video games will start showing up in nursing homes and memory care facilities? Maybe not so much for our generation, but for ones that grew up with them. Might require a new genre of games, though...or maybe not? Will 85-year-old millennials still get a thrill from crashing cars, blowing things up, and doing the wild thing with video babes?

 

[Dawg52]

In the full-length documentary they talk about the importance of personalized music, songs that are especially meaningful to the individual. Volunteers work with each patient and their family, if available, to find out what songs the patient most loved when they were younger.

Yes, if I'm ever in this situation I hope they play the right music for me. Pretty amazing how music helped the gentleman in the video.

 

[MRG]

Great idea, music calms the brain.

A similar idea that helped my DM. My sister noticed how DM would enjoy looking at photos of her kids and families. Despite her memory issues she was able to recognize most of them. Sister scanned them in an electronic frame that went through them. DM would be entertained for hours.

An idea that was never tried but probably would have been very good in her situation. We lived in Williamsport for many years and she loved to watch the LLWS. Not cause she was a fan, she enjoyed seeing the kids. We should have recorded a bunch of games for her to watch. She wouldn't have known she watched them all yesterday.

 

[Bir48die]

My mom suffered from dementia for around ten years. She gave us kids her music gene. The last thing to go for her was music. She could pick up a tune and hum it after a few seconds.

About a year prior to her passing a van from a non profit (I want to say PBS) came into town and allowed my sister and her to record some of her singing and burn it on a CD. She was far along the path of dementia but it was great to hear her voice that is recorded forever.

 

[O2Bfree]

The documentary explains how the parts of the brain that respond to music are often less affected by degenerative diseases. Possibly, music reaches through those parts to activate connections to other areas previously accessed by connections that have deteriorated.

 

[Bestwifeever]

DH loves to sing and has been part of this outfit for a couple of years: https://encoreillinois.org. Although DH’s choir is not dementia related, the organization has just started another choir for dementia patients.

Here is an article about the study the group grew out of: Creativity may play key role in healthy aging - Health - Aging | NBC News Apparently music “won”. If only I could or liked to sing....

 

[Koolau]

My mom used to play piano for her mom (my grandmother) who was far along in dementia. Grandma would at first sing along (alto) and later, when she was further along, she would hum the alto part. Other than that, she was virtually unresponsive.

Dementia is so strange. My dad who had become relatively unresponsive in his last days was able to identify all of the people in the family photo (20? people). This happened the Sunday before he passed on a Thursday. SO, the memories were still in there. They apparently could not be accessed except at the very end. I had heard of this phenomenon, then witnessed it with both parents.

Perhaps music creates some sort of access that is not well understood. I think I'll put together a list (or maybe a tape or other recording) of favorite music to be played back for me if I ever have dementia. Hope I never need it, but... YMMV

 

[RonBoyd]

I was looking for the NYTimes article but found there are many on the possible Herpes Virus/Alzheimer relationship.

https://www.google.com/search?sourc...88...........0.34sNDaSsrPc&qscrl=1&gws_rd=ssl

 

[Splash]

In my mom's final stages of dementia, she could barely communicate yet during activities at her memory care unit she would sing an entire song or say an entire rosary without missing a word.