A new study found that personalized music therapy can help patients with treatment-resistant depression.
Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine discovered that classical music elicited significant improvements in patients who did not respond to multiple standard treatments for their depression.
The results, published in Cell Reports, demonstrated how music, in this case Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, activates a complex network in the brain that helps regulate mood.
The network involves the auditory cortex which is the brain's sound processing center, and two deeper brain regions: the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc). According to Study Finds, these areas of the brain are part of the reward circuit that governs mood regulation and pleasure.
When the study subjects listened to music, these brain regions were stimulated and communicated with each other to create a harmonious interaction that helped improve mood and restore balance in areas disrupted by depression. The results were monitored by electrodes implanted into their brains.
"By collaborating with clinicians, music therapists, computer scientists, and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone applications and wearable devices," said study author Dr. Bomin Sun, professor of neurology at the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. "These products will integrate personalized music recommendations, real-time emotional monitoring and feedback, and virtual-reality multisensory experiences to provide convenient and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life."
Experts say that while more research is needed to investigate the role of music as a standard therapy for depression, this study offers evidence that music may play a critical role in treating this common mental health condition, especially when other therapies have failed.