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Music as Medicine for Wounded Vets (Andrew)

Bandaid I have a short piece up in the January 2010 issue of Popular Science about a promising form of music therapy used in the arduous process of healing traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in veterans.  Because of the pervasiveness of IEDs, and because body armor allows soldiers to survive many explosions that might have killed them in earlier wars, TBIs have been called the "signature wound" of the Iraq War.

People, this is a big problem.  Symptoms and recovery can take years — assuming that the veteran doesn't feel stigmatized about asking for help for memory problems and depression, and can get the treatment.  The article takes a low estimate of "hundreds" of young veterans coming back with serious brain injuries — although the Rand Corporation has a high estimate that over 300,000 young veterans have at least mild traumatic brain injury (like any wound, TBIs are on a spectrum of severity).  Let's hope the American people are willing to step up and make sure that veterans get the costly rehab they deserve.

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2 responses to “Music as Medicine for Wounded Vets (Andrew)”

  1. Ruchira

    Thanks Andrew.

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  2. Inge Mulvad

    The subject of ’music as medicine’ has achieved very much attention in recent years, mainly because of the remarkable research in this area.
    With this comment I just want to contribute with a bit of information about the specially designed and clinically documented music program “MusiCure” by the Danish composer Niels Eje.
    Since 2005 this music have had special attention from the Danish military because a sergeant suffering from PTSD (after being involved in active combat in Bosnia years earlier) made public that the MusiCure music had helped him more than medication and treatment – now the military use the music as a tool to prevent psychological trauma and PTSD.
    You can read the sergeant’s statement here:
    http://www.musicahumana.org/00029/00073/00116/
    As project coordinator and musician (cello) I have been involved in both the creation and the research, which have been going on in Scandinavia since 1998. Controlled clinical tests and studies have, among a lot of other positive effects, shown that MusiCure can reduce our body’s production of stress hormone cortisol significantly, and diminish the use of pain medicine (morphine) in school-aged children who had undergone surgery – and generally provide inspiration and motivation to people seeking a tool for relaxation and stress relief in everyday life.
    For more information see: http://www.musicahumana.org (the research behind the music) and http://www.musicure.com (about the music and the composer) – see also a concentrated version of the whole story about MusiCure in a 5 minute documentary at YouTube:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IePmixldH5c

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