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Category: Music
The Creative Therapy That Helps Reduce Depression
Higher self-esteem from a common creative therapy that also helps reduce depression.
Higher self-esteem from a common creative therapy that also helps reduce depression.
Music therapy can reduce depression in young people with behaviour problems, research finds.
Music therapy also increased self-esteem compared to those who received the usual treatment without the therapy.
The conclusions come from the largest every study of its kind.
It involved 251 children, only half of whom were given music therapy.
The music therapy itself included things like the therapist asking children to describe how they felt by playing a tune.
All the children in the study were being treated for behavioural, emotional or developmental problems.
The results showed that those who received the music therapy had higher self-esteem and reduced depression in comparison to those that had care as usual.
Professor Sam Porter, who led the study, said:
“This study is hugely significant in terms of determining effective treatments for children and young people with behavioural problems and mental health needs.
The findings contained in our report should be considered by healthcare providers and commissioners when making decisions about the sort of care for young people that they wish to support.”
Ciara Reilly, Chief Executive of Every Day Harmony, a music therapy charity, said:
“Music therapy has often been used with children and young people with particular mental health needs, but this is the first time its effectiveness has been shown by a definitive randomised controlled trail in a clinical setting.
The findings are dramatic and underscore the need for music therapy to be made available as a mainstream treatment option.
For a long time we have relied on anecdotal evidence and small-scale research findings about how well music therapy works.
Now we have robust clinical evidence to show its beneficial effects.”
Related
The study was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, (Porter et al., 2016).
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Sad Music And Movies Soothe Relationship Problems
Break-ups and rejection make people reach for a downbeat aesthetic experience.
Break-ups and rejection make people reach for a downbeat aesthetic experience.
Sad music and gloomy movies help soothe the pain of relationship problems.
People having difficulties in their personal relationships are more likely to choose tearjerker dramas and downbeat music.
This is unusual, because sad people usually prefer fun comedies and upbeat music to turn their mood around.
However, there is something about experiencing relationship problems, such as a break-up, that makes people want similar emotional companionship.
The study’s authors write:
“Consumers seek and experience emotional companionship with music, films, novels, and the fine arts as a substitute for lost and troubled relationships.”
In one experiment, people recalled an experience involving a loss.
For some it was a relationship loss, for others it was an impersonal loss, like losing a competition.
Those who thought about losing a competition wanted to be cheered up with happy music.
But, those who thought about losing a relationship wanted sombre music.
The authors write:
“Emotional experiences of aesthetic products are important to our happiness and well-being.
Music, movies, paintings, or novels that are compatible with our current mood and feelings, akin to an empathic friend, are more appreciated when we experience broken or failing relationships.”
Another experiment showed that people preferred angry music when they were frustrated by being interrupted, or someone being late.
In other words, a personal hassle made people want negatively valenced music.
However, people who experienced impersonal hassles, like a loss of internet connection, wanted upbeat music to take their mind off it.
So, sadness caused by other people makes us yearn for similar aesthetic experiences.
Maybe this is because being rejected by others makes us crave emotional companionship, which sad music and movies provide.
The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Research (Lee et al., 2013).
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