Music may help ease symptoms of depression
Music therapy might help ease the symptoms of depression, though its effectiveness as a stand-alone intervention is not certain, according to a recent review of five small studies.
Four of the studies found reduced depression symptoms in participants receiving music therapy compared to those who did not. The fifth study did not find any difference.
Because the of the various and inconsistent ways the music was used – some patients listened while painting, some while engaged in other activities, they did not find a definitive cause and effect, only a correlation. Still it does seem that many patients liked the idea of music being incorporated into their treatment. For someone severely depressed to take an interest is a good indication that those providing the therapy have found a way to engage the person, a good first step. Perhaps solving Rob’s dilemma from High Fidelity, which came first the music or the misery.
Pittinsky’s research suggests that negative and positive attitudes are not opposite ends of a spectrum, but at least partially independent – that all the tolerance training in the world would not instill affection for a group. Pittinsky’s investigations – conducted among diverse populations in the Middle East, New England, and elsewhere – suggest a novel approach to transforming relations among social groups.
Instead of merely training people to hate each other less, Pittinsky says, it may be time to teach them to like each other more.
“Would you want to be tolerated?” Pittinsky says. “The synonyms are even worse – to endure, to put up with. . . .We can and must do better than tolerance.”
Sounds like a concept that I would have latched on to in my teens, maybe even college, but I’m at the stage where I’d settle for everyone just gritting their teeth and putting down that AK-47.
inkbluesky 