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Using Music To Manage PTSD Symptoms

September 9, 2010 - There have been a litany of alternative therapy methods introduced over the last few years for managing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Many of them provide temporary distractions to suffering veterans as opposed to providing an ability to manage those symptoms. The psychiatry ward in the Southern New Jersey Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is using music to help Vietnam veterans manage their various PTSD symptoms. 

Dr. Mary Rorro is known as "The Violin Doc" at the James J. Howard Outpatient Clinic. More precisely, Dr. Rorro plays a viola. She is a staff psychiatrist at the VA Clinic and she plays her viola to Vietnam Veterans as part of her musical approach to PTSD therapy. She will play for the entire hour-long session while the veterans talk about their PTSD related issues. 

The conventional approach to managing PTSD symptoms has been medication combined with therapy. Last year, the VA diagnosed approximately 400,000 vets with PTSD, which is just about twice as many as were diagnosed a short 5 years ago. There is a strong push to find alternative therapies to the conventional approach that will allow soldiers with PTSD to manage their symptoms. There is no known cure for PTSD, so learning to at least manage the symptoms of PTSD is vital.

Over the last 5 years, the VA has nearly doubled the amount of music therapists it keeps at its clinics. Despite the lack of agreement about the effectiveness of music therapy, a recent study found certain parts of a person's brain are triggered when the person listens to music they find enjoyable. These parts of the brain release chemicals, which in turn make the person feel better. People associate enjoyable music with positive memories.

Music therapy attempts to use pleasurable music to suppress the brain's negative emotion system. Therefore, the music is providing a positive path and a sense of happiness, which veterans can use to talk about their trauma. It isn't just any music, however. Music with lyrics or spoken words will generally cause agitation in PTSD patients; the music needs to come from lower-pitched instruments, such as a viola. Live music is also generally preferred to recorded. 

Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have a different "type" of PTSD than Vietnam veterans. Because music therapy works with memories to heal, and many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer memory loss as a result of blast injuries, only time will tell if music therapy will help this young generation of veterans the way it has worked successfully with Vietnam veterans.