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Feeling stressed? Try making music!

 If you’re not used to it, making music may seem like an odd way to combat stress. You might imagine the nerves of performance and the risks of getting it wrong. Yet there’s plenty of evidence that, appropriately tailored, programmes of music making can be a really effective route to reducing the everyday episodes of stress that we are all subject to, treating the symptoms of chronic stress, and even effective as part of a range of therapies for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). And you don’t need to be a highly accomplished musician to get these benefits.




We think of stress in many ways, but from a biological viewpoint stress is a source of changes to the way the brain regulates hormonal activity in the body, i.e. between the nervous system and the endocrine system via the neuroendocrine system. This system regulates many processes in the body including the immune system. In particular, secretion of neurohormones regulates the hypothalamus, which is altered by physical and emotional stress. A 2005 study examined the use of a recreational music making approach amongst individuals who did not consider themselves musical (Bittman et al., 2005). Stress was induced in the subjects by giving them a challenging puzzle to assemble at high speed, with the incentive of a cash prize for the fastest, and the added stress of a researcher interrupting them to point out how much better other subjects were performing. Not very pleasant, but probably indicative of the kind of stress we all encounter from time to time in the workplace or in domestic situations! Blood samples were taken, then subjects were randomly assigned to one of three groups. One group was allowed to rest and read newspapers and magazines of their choice, one continued with the puzzle task, and the third got to spend an hour participating in a recreational music-making session based on keyboard playing, designed to be fun for adults with no previous musical experience. Finally a second blood sample was taken from all three groups.

The blood samples were analysed for expression levels of 45 genes known to be implicated in stress. Stress levels were signficantly reduced in 19 out of 45 the genes amongst the music making group, 6 out of 45 in the resting group – and none of the genes in the group subject to continuing stress. This provides clear support for the idea that recreational music making can play an important role in reducing stress even amongst complete novices.

While the stress levels involved in the study mentioned above were those that most of us can relate to, showing a fairly universal opportunity for benefits, it’s interesting to know whether music making could help to treat more serious conditions of stress, for example for those who may have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which can arise in response to a traumatic event, giving rise to a wide range of mental or physical distress symptoms.  A common approach to treating PTSD is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – but not all PTSD patients respond to CBT. A study of PTSD patients who still had significant symptoms after completing CBT were given a programme of group music therapy (Carr et al., 2012). The therapy was delivered by trained professionals, and involved easy-to-access instruments such as xylophones, maracas, Indian bells, gato drums and  djembe drums, as well as guitars and pianos if desired. The patients receiving the treatment were compared to a control group without the treatment. The treated patients experienced a significant reduction in the severity of their PTSD symptoms compared to the untreated ones, and also a mild reduction in depression.

I’m pleased to say that the patients who didn’t initially get the treatment were offered the opportunity to join the programme after the study!

So do consider taking up regularly making music as part of your destressing routine.

References

Bittman, B., Berk, L., Shannon, M., Sharaf, M., Westengard, J., Guegler, K. J., & Ruff, D. W. (2005). Recreational music-making modulates the human stress response: a preliminary individualized gene expression strategy. Med Sci Monit, 11(2), Br31-40.

Carr, C., d'Ardenne, P., Sloboda, A., Scott, C., Wang, D., & Priebe, S. (2012). Group music therapy for patients with persistent post-traumatic stress disorder--an exploratory randomized controlled trial with mixed methods evaluation. Psychol Psychother, 85(2), 179-202. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8341.2011.02026.x

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