Two epistemologies: Music therapy and medicine in the treatment of dementia

Author(s): Aldridge, Gudrun

Journal/Book: Arts in Psychotherapy. 1992; 19: 243-255.

Abstract: Compares 2 therapeutic epistemologies, medicine and music therapy, in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), arguing that improvised music therapy offers the opportunity to supplement mental state examinations. Music therapy is a sensitive assessment tool, testing those elements of speech production that are not lexically dependent, and can be used to test those areas of functioning, both receptive and productive, not covered adequately by other test instruments (i.e., fluency, perseverance in context, attention, concentration, and intentionality). Music therapy provides a form of therapy that may stimulate cognitive activities so that areas subject to progressive failure are maintained. It is hypothesized that it is rhythmic structure, the overall context of musical production, that begins to fail in AD patients.

Note: music therapy vs medical treatment; patients with Alzheimer's disease

Keyword(s): Music therapy; medical treatment general; alzheimers disease

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