NIH: New Grants Explore Benefits of Music on Health

My bolding.
https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2019/09/19/new-grants-explore-benefits-of-music-on-health/

https://twitter.com/user/status/1174764615281938432

 

This is an irresponsible use of public funds when there are people in desperate need of research into treatments and cures ( and prevention) for underfunded conditions; research that will make a real difference to lives. The NIH should know this, there is no excuse.

Edit grammar

 

I suppose it's well known that most symphony orchestras are in financial difficulty, so what better use could there be for the health budget than subsidising the pursuits of the generally healthy, if old, rich.

And I like symphony orchestras. Though neither healthy, nor rich.

 

Wyller is of course already on this. I'm furious that research allocations have gone to this. This seems to be a combination of music therapy, CBT and gaslighting.

Mental intervention for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) following acute Epstein-Barr virus infection (2015)

Music therapy has effect on sensory modulation, cognition, emotions and behavior which seems functional treating CFS/ME; these effects are mediated via central nervous learning processes (18). No studies exist – and consequently no clinical documentation of the benefit of music therapy for treating CFS/ME, but there is shown positive effect in related conditions like fibromyalgia (6,27). Combinations of music therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are established in other clinical settings (20).

....

The intervention – outlines of the mental treatment program

The treatment program is delivered through 10 treatment sessions á 90 minutes over a period of 10 weeks. The first session is an introduction and takes place with the patient, his/her parents/guardians and all therapists that are carrying out the treatment (figure 1). Then follow nine treatment sessions, four led by a music therapist (lesson nr. 2, 3, 5 and 9) and five led by a cognitive therapist (lesson nr. 4, 6, 7, 8 and 10). At three of the sessions with cognitive therapists (lesson 4, 7 and 10) parents/guardians participate; also, parents/guardians may attend lesson nr. 5 and 8 if the team of therapists considers it advantageous. Between the sessions each patient gets home work, and will also be called up at least once a week by either music therapist or cognitive therapist for advice and counselling.

In the first part of the treatment program music therapy will be emphasized (figure 1), with a combination of musical improvisation, songwriting, music listening and also developing personal playlists to be used in the daily living (1,2,28). Elements from cognitive therapy will be introduced gradually, and will in the end be the dominating form of treatment.

......

Expectations and hope

One may have expectations both to specific targets and more general to “what will happen in the future”. It is important charting the patients expectations, both to the disease/symptoms itself, specific situations in the everyday life, and future circumstances of life. Negative patient expectations, both what is going to happen (stimulus expectation), and how you can deal with it (response outcome expectation) have in themselves impact on the stress responses, and may be included as vicious circles in the patients (8,30,35).

The therapist must attempt to communicate to the patient a realistic hope of improvement, both from disease and life in general. This presupposes that the therapist possesses specialist authority, confidence as a therapist, empathy and a trustful relation to the patient. The patient needs to experience that his/her complaints and symptoms are taken seriously, that they can be explained in a rational way, and that no differential diagnoses are missed. User experiences indicate that histories from other patients (who have become healed) are of great importance for expectation and hope (17).



https://www.ahus.no/seksjon/forskni...ungdomsklinikken/Paedia/Behandlingsmanual.pdf

 

Complete misuse of state funds and I think more than the yearly ME/CFS budget? If you think music could benefit your or your loved ones health, buy a cd, put on the radio or if you have capacity join a choir or ensemble. It’s already known it think it’s calming or rousing effects. I think in the wonderful film awakenings with robin williams he used music as a trigger for patients, it’s already used afaik in dementia etc, there’s been Mozart for babies cds for years and an interesting project from Denmark I think called musicure which combines especially created music and nature videos supposedly for wellbeing and anxiety in the clinical environment, although anyone can subscribe, i don’t expect the nhs to though. This research is for individuals with interest to explore afaic.
Edit reading the article it sounds reasonably useful some of it but it’s the principle that we can put in $20m for this whilst getting ME/CFS research is like getting blood out of a stone often and a strategy for us is still to be formulated isn’t it?

 

I loved my music, was thinking about joining an amateur orchestra or open mike nights but I could not lift the weight of my flute anymore and my face drooped so I could not make the lip shape needed.

Took up the whistle instead but it is a struggle and I can only do it on good days. So much for music therapy. Cure my disease then I could use music.

 

My understanding is the NIH is channeling $3 Billion into its new Interdisciplinary Hedonism Division. It has high hopes it will cure pretty much everything, but if it doesn't, it will be fun having tried.

 

And none of the therapists will need to get their hands dirty.

 

This is a complete waste of resources. WTF is wrong with these people? Unlike exercise, listening to music is pleasant and requires no effort. How is anyone dumb enough to genuinely think people need to be encouraged to do something easy and pleasant, other of course than as a lure for their CBT crap.

I was a musician, had to quit because of ME. I played in a band for 10 years. Music was a huge part of my life. Since I developed hyperacusis I can barely listen to music a few times per month, if at all, and in short duration. It was a huge struggle to continue playing while I was still mild, I did it, still ended up fully disabled.

Music is still one of the highest pleasures in my life. When I can endure it because the hyperacusis is low enough to tolerate, it's absolutely glorious. Nobody needs motivation to do fun things. What a stupid fundamental attribution error to even suggest something like that.

No, music does not freaking cure highly disabling chronic disease. They could keep the trial exactly as is and replace it with free beer and chat sessions and the outcome would be just as valid: "improvement" in self-reported outcomes that have nothing to do with the illness other than breaking the crushing isolation that comes with it or a false measurement following pressure to rate improvement even when there isn't any.

Really getting a handle on why medical research is so expensive and delivers so little per dollar when you actually know how much of it wasted on useless crap by clueless people who can't tell the voices in their heads apart from reality.

 

Are they "exploring" or do they have a specific hypothesis to test?

Ron Davis has often lamented having grants to NIH get rejected because they are "exploring" and do not have an explicit hypothesis in mind...

What a waste of money.