Music therapy supports medical cure of patients

KOCAELİ - Anatolia News Agency

‘Live music makes the patients less stressed and makes their high blood pressure to come a normal level. Depression and anxiety also diminish with music therapy,’ says leading Turkish heart and cardiovascular surgeon Bingür Sönmez. ‘The tune changes from patient to patient. This is something like prescribing drugs,’ he adds. AA photo

Music therapy has been Administered for ages, music therapy is now being as a technique by Turkish doctors to cure patients.

“We can treat depressed patients and high blood pressure in 15 minutes with music therapy,” leading Turkish heart and cardiovascular surgeon Bingür Sönmez said.

Sönmez, president of Memorial Hospital Cardiovascular Surgery Department, said Europeans who had psychological problems were punished during the Middle Ages, but in the Selçuk and Ottoman empires, they were treated with Sufi music.

Currently, the hospital is administering the same kind of therapy twice daily. Patients listen to a live reed flute for 15 minutes each morning and night. “People who are treated with music become a different person within a very short period of time,” Sönmez added.

Doctors following patients on the hypertension monitor have seen patients’ high blood pressure decrease even though they did not take their pills, according to Sönmez. Even the pulse changes, he added.

“Live music makes the patients less stressed and makes their high blood pressure to come a normal level. Depression and anxiety also diminish with music therapy,” said Sönmez.

The tune changes from patient to patient, he said. “This is something like prescribing drugs, or we can say this is a prescription. Different patients need different tunes and different tunes create different effects in a patient.”

“That’s why we first meet and interview the patient. They determine the tune that they would like to hear. We receive good results because we tailor [the treatment].”

Sönmez said drugs and pills were essential for treatment, but music therapy is a supportive technique.
Research conducted in Europe revealed patients with high blood pressure who listen to music have fewer hypertension problems.

“We also use fewer sleeping pills and more music for our patients in the intensive care unit. With this technique we also use fewer tension pills. After listening to music, the patients sleep better,” added Sönmez.

Noting that music lowers the adrenaline level, prevents spasms and lowers tension, Sönmez said, “What we do is not a treatment, but a support to modern medicine.”

Each tune has an exclusive use

Music therapy aims to diminish the fears and anxiety of the patient, said Erol Can, a medical doctor.
Noting that they usually administer this treatment to the patients in the intensive care unit, Can said: “The patients that are coming from anesthesia need music therapy. With this treatment their heart condition returns to normal faster.”

Patients in comas also receive music therapy. “We talk to their families and ask what they like. According to their musical taste we apply music therapy,” said Can. “I prefer that patients listen to calm music. Once, one of our patients, who was 86 years old, wanted to listen to Şakşuka.”

A few years ago they conducted research, testing patients before listening to music. The patients who listened to music calmed down and had less tension after 20 minutes, Can said, as well as higher oxygen levels. He said stress levels of six or seven decreased to three after the therapy.

Music therapy also works for anorexic patients. Can said each tune worked differently on patients. “For example, the Turkish ‘rast’ melody works for anorexia and the ‘Hejaz’ melody mostly works for patients who are on a diet.”