Music for Medicine We take a look at the effectiveness of music therapy in patient rehabilitation.Music therapy is where art and science meet in improving the physical and emotional health of patients,and some of the effects are changing people"s lives.41.Scientific music therapy originated after World War I,when it was noticed that visiting musicians greatly aided traumatised soldiers in hospital.Since then,neurologists have shown that music directly affects both our physical and mental processes and can greatly speed the recovery of patients in hospitals,special-education centres and aged-care facilities.42.Why music has this therapeutic effect is poorly understood,but the results are clear:music influences everything from heart rate and blood pressure to skin responses and the immune system.It has a positive impact on chronic fatigue syndrome,sleeping patterns and supporting recovery from drug and alcohol abuse.It relieves anxiery in the terminally ill and reduces the medication required among the sick.Music therapy even improves the memory and communication and motor skills of stroke and brain injury victims,speeding their recovery.43.Most of us would agree that music is relaxing.Indeed,it actually reduces our respiratory rate,heart rate,blood pressure and stress hormones.As a result,music has the ability to reduce anxiety in dental clinics,calm patients in mental wards and alleviate perceptions ofpain-even among women in labour.Making,rather than listening to music,also affects patients"motivation and desire for social interaction."Often in the chemotherapy ward when I sit by patients and sing,they start to join in.It"s not a sterile trcatment space anymore.It"s a place where people are coming together in music making,"says O"Bricn.44.The magic works even on the very young,suggesting we have a wired connection to music beyond social conditioning.Even premature babies show amazing improvements when exposed to music."Thcrc"s more to looking after sick babies than turning up the oxygen or giving feeds,"says Dr.Peter McDougall at Royal Children"s Hospital in Melbourne."Music therapy has a big part to play in the carc of babies.I"m a big supporter of it."Every time the music is switched on,the babies"heart rates drops and blood oxygen saturation increases.They gain weight more quickly and shorten their hospital stay."Baby boys leave a day and a half sooner,but for some reason,baby girls leave an extraordinary I I days earlier."says Dr.Jane Standley."American hospitals now routinely play music to premature babies,saving up to I 5 percent of their medical costs."45.Premature babies show a preference for simple classical arrangements and female vocals,perhaps because they mimic the heartbeat tempo and voice they hear in the womb.This is also the key to lullabies,which havc a repetitive,almost monotonous nature-just like the predictable music that soothes during massagcs or meditation.One Harvard study found that patients listening to Mozart piano sonatas show a decrease in blood pressure,stress hormones and the trauma-response chemical cytokine,while anothcr found Mozart the best at calming cpileptic seizures.41选？