COVID-19: BC Music Therapy Research seeks to rescue healthcare professionals

“I’m very excited to find new ways to help them and find new approaches to improving mental health,” says research coordinator Sean Fickling.

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A new hypothetical study involving nurses, doctors and emergency medical personnel at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 aims to find out if music therapy can improve mental and emotional health.

In a four-week study, 20 healthcare professionals wore brain-scanning equipment during a remote music therapy session and gave researchers at Simon Fraser University and Sally’s Health Technology District insights into the resulting changes in brain function. Give.

In the case of Tallinn Stephenson, director of a nonprofit organization Music is healed Sponsoring the study, it represents an opportunity to uncover how music therapy can support mental health outcomes.

“We’re in a pandemic and we can see that people are more inclined to the musical experience, even if it’s virtual,” says Stevenson, who says music can reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression. He added that he believed. “Frankly, I think it’s because music is a language of emotions. It touches a part of our hearts and perhaps our thoughts that traditional medicine cannot.”

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Music therapy looks different for each session and client, given that not everyone has the ability or mobility to strumming instruments or playing the keyboard on the piano, Stevenson said. For some, treatment may simply involve listening to music.

Neuroscientist and co-founder Ryan D’Arcy Health Technology DistrictSaid that there is a great deal of existing science and research showing the powerful effects of music on mood, emotions, memory and cognition.

“Even those with severe Alzheimer’s disease can draw them into a conscious place. Thinking for yourself, listening to a song brings back memories and the first time you hear it. Seeing and sniffing can be seen to influence and engage positive moods and emotions, “D’Arcee said.

What researchers want in this study is to translate that knowledge into “a positive impact on those who need it today during a pandemic.”

Sean Fickling, a biomedical engineer, recently PhD in SFU, and research coordinator, has a little thought in understanding how to carry out scientific research during a pandemic when the institute is closed. He said it was necessary.

Researchers came up with the concept of large-scale research on the mental health benefits of music therapy a few years ago, which would have included magnetic resonance imaging. COVID-19 has ruled out that idea, Fickling said.

As the pandemic progressed, researchers realized that they weren’t coping with the increasing mental health burden of healthcare professionals, and devised a study that included video conferencing and muse, a commercially available, easily equipped brain scanning device. Did.

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Participants currently recruited with the help of the Fraser Health Clinical Research Team at Sally Memorial Hospital will receive the device and its brain scanner. After explaining how to equip your device, join a session with a certified music therapist. The study allows researchers to determine whether treatment has improved participants’ mental health and emotional status, Fickling said.

“I’m really looking forward to this,” he said. “I have friends who are doctors and emergency health care workers. Even before COVID, how stressful their work was, and how difficult the pandemic made their lives and their associated mental health challenges. From a personal level, I’m very excited to find new ways to help them and find new approaches to improving their mental health. “

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