Don’t use a chemical cosh—music calms the distressed dementia patient

Distressed dementia patients are often sedated with powerful drugs—known as a chemical cosh—but music therapy can have the same calming effects.

Patients feel calmer and even report an overall improvement in their quality of life after a musical therapy session, say researchers from the Anglian Ruskin University in the UK.

The therapy, known as Melodic, encourages patients to listen to music, or play an instrument or sing.

It’s been tested on a small group of the most severely distressed patients in UK hospitals, and the results have been promising, the researchers found.

It’s relatively inexpensive to implement, and it doesn’t cause the nasty side effects commonly seen with chemical coshes.

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