We reported approach of the music therapy for Parkinson′s disease in Nagoya university. The music therapy was began from 1999 for project of public health center in Nagoya. With the music therapy, improvement of ADL and stability for mood were obtained in Parkinson′s disease. Therefore we began music therapy in 2008 in cooperation with the association of the Aichi Parkinson disease in Nagoya University. Furthermore, the music therapy with a music CD revealed the improvement of speech articulation and objective acoustic pressure. Recently, we review the effect of music therapy using DVD.

View full abstract

The author will discuss three cases with schizophrenia that underwent individualized music therapy from the perspective of music psychology and psychopathology. All three patients had a tense appearance, exhibited a lack of interest, and were very autistic. The author performed individualized music therapy to reduce the symptoms in all the subjects once every one or two weeks for several years. Singing and listening to popular songs performed by the author on a piano or a CD player were eventually used. Ultimately, the subjects became less autistic by submerging themselves in music for periods of time. These patient courses suggest that submerging themselves in their favorite popular music had a meaningful effect on the patients. Submerging oneself in music is thought to resemble the ‘intra-festum mentality′ reported by Kimura or the ‘disorganization of field of consciousness′ reported by Ey and is thought to be comparable to the ‘acute psychosis′ reported by Ey. In other words, submerging oneself in music produces a disorganization of field of consciousness and can bring about a change from chronic ‘autistic psychosis′(Ey) to a state resembling acute psychosis. This change “loosens” the mental integration of the patient, with the significant effect of enabling favorite songs to emerge. Since Meyer reported that during musical experiences, the same stimuli (i.e., music) activates and restrains the ‘tendency′ and provides meaningful and fair consequences from the viewpoint of music psychology,(tonic) music may have a positive effect on mental states that are dominated by anxiety and tension originating from unknown future prospects. The repetition of these experiences may reduce the anxiety and tension arising from the ‘‘ante-festum mentality′that leads to autism, thereby releasing the patients from their autistic symptoms.

View full abstract

Music therapy conference was held on a patient with lissencephaly. The patient was a 7–year–old boy. His health condition deteriorated just before he entered the elementary school and he suffered from longer and more frequent generalized tonic seizure. He became less responsive to music and music therapy. We discussed music therapy indication to patients with epileptic seizure, musicogenic epilepsy, the way to cope with seizure during music therapy sessions, and music therapy application to illconditioned patients.

View full abstract