- The hospitals of the health group are increasingly using this therapeutic tool after verifying its benefits in anxiety, sleep, depressive disorders, phobias and personality, among other profiles, and launches a channel on spotify
- In the ICU, music reduces heart and respiratory rates, as well as blood pressure in patients, which helps them control pain; and in Neurology, it improves cognitive, motor and language abilities. “Some patients may not remember the name of their children, but they do remember the lyrics of a song that they were passionate about”
The hospitals of the Ribera healthcare group They are increasingly betting on music therapy as a therapeutic tool to reduce anxiety, pain and stress suffered by some hospitalized patients, awaiting surgery or in Intensive Care, as well as those suffering from sleep or personality disorders, are undergoing treatment for depression or have a phobia, among other profiles. As a result of the challenge assumed to improve the patient experience and contribute to her well-being, Ribera has opened a profile on Sportify, to facilitate access to music charts or with a Espaitec's of health, to help them both during their hospital stays (admissions, dialysis, chemotherapy) and in their recovery at home.
Dr. Alex García, head of Neurology at the Hospital de Denia, ensures that "music therapy consists of using the responses and connections of a person with music, to stimulate positive changes in mood and general well-being." “Thanks to the variety of responses that music produces, both at the cognitive, communicative, physical, psychological, sensitive and transcendental levels, music therapy has a controlled influence, among others, on motor skills, memory, attention, creativity, verbalization, empowerment of the senses, proprioception, in the reduction of stress and anxiety, in brain stimulation and in the immune system and biological rhythms”, he explains.
Belén Vázquez, therapist at the Ribera Polusa hospital, points out, for his part, that "music has the ability to provoke emotional responses in us and modulate them". "If we listen to pleasant music, the nucleus is activated accubens, responsible for the reward circuit and the stress response; when we listen to relaxing music, the activation of the amygdala involved in emotional reactions, especially fear, decreases ”, he explains. In this sense, he points out, it has been proven that it can help people with fears or phobias because "it has been proven in people with anxiety disorders that the origin is in the activation of the amygdala, even when faced with stimuli that are objectively not threatening". Explain. Dr. García also elaborates on this line: "Music influences stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, and by managing to reduce these, the symptoms of anxiety are alleviated."
Christelle García Soliveres, psychologist at the Vinalopó University Hospital, highlights for his part that in patients admitted to Intensive Care (ICU), and who suffer a high level of stress and anxiety, "music therapy can help them to distract themselves from the stimuli that generate stress responses, reduce heart rate, respiratory rate , and blood pressure, all of them indicators of a relaxation response to that stimulus, as well as decreased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. In addition, he adds, there are studies that indicate that music “helps to release endorphins, producing analgesia and a feeling of well-being; and can help improve sleep quality.” The head of Neurology at the Denia Hospital agrees with this assessment, who also adds that, given that a large number of these patients are awake, "some studies ensure that music therapy is a way of including both the patient and family members in the care and recovery process, since they can choose the music they want to listen to and the duration of the sessions”.
With regard to people with dementia or degenerative neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, Belén Vázquez, a health psychologist at Ribera Polusa, assures that "they enjoy music and their ability to respond to it is preserved even in advanced stages of the disease". "Some patients may not remember the name of their children, but they do remember the lyrics of a song that they were passionate about," he says, while recalling that a study "Sarkamo et al" (2008) reported improved attention in patients with lesion in the left hemisphere, after listening to music for at least one hour a day. Doctor García confirms this: “it has been proven that music therapy produces structural and physiological changes in the brain, improving neuroplasticity and the restructuring of neural circuits”.
The Ribera Polusa therapist concludes that “it is important that music reaches all socio-health centers and hospitals, both ICUs, mental health wards, Oncology or hemodialysis areas, among others. We need hospitals with a soul and music comforts us”.
