iPod Therapy – Why Not Prescribe It?
Yours truly, the author of Medical Lessons, is listening to music while she writes. A live version of the Stones’ “Silver Train” has just come on, and she’s happily reminded of something that happened 30 years ago. Distracting? Yes. Calming? Yes. Paradoxically helps to keep me on track? Yes.
My iPod keeps my mind from wandering further. And it lifts my mood.
And so here, on my blog, which is not peer-reviewed or anything like that, I put forth the medical concept of “iPod therapy.”
“When you’re weary, feeling small…” Music can help.
Today’s news reports that 1 in 5 Americans take drugs for psychiatric conditions. That sounds like a lot to me, but I’m no pharmaceutical surveyor. Of course many people need and benefit from medical help for depression and other mental illnesses.
But, in all seriousness, I wonder how many people might use music like a drug to keep them relaxed, happy, alert…
Why not prescribe music? It works for me, n=1.
Maybe doctors should be recommending iPods, or radios, or Pandora to some of their patients who are feeling down. I hope an academic psychiatrist somewhere, without ties to Apple or Pandora or Bose or other relevant party is coordinating a careful, prospective study of this promising and relatively inexpensive intervention.
As best I can tell, music is non-addictive. Except that if I had to live without it, I’d start humming, or maybe singing, which might be detrimental to those who live near.
—
Related Posts:
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Leave a Reply