Sound Therapy Helps Anxiety, Cravings, Anger, and Mood in Addictions
Many of us already know that music soothes the soul. Music increases the effects of dopamine, enhancing pleasure and reducing stress. Scientific studies using fMRI back this up, clearly showing that listening to music strongly regulates activity in a network of brain structures involved in reward processing. [1]
The brain has a reward pathway where this reward processing occurs. This pathway traverses the brain's different regions, including the nucleus accumbens (considered addiction central) and the ventral tegmental area, the source of dopamine, which is the currency of reward. These and other brain areas are all believed to be involved in regulating unconscious and bodily responses to rewarding and emotional stimuli.
Dopamine goes a long way to soothe the brain from anxiety, depression, or other disorders. Addictive substances and behaviours flood the pathway with abnormal amounts of dopamine, which eases whatever the issue is and where the hook is.
A study [2] to determine if music and sound can have a similar impact ran a Stress & Deep Relaxation procedure using Audio Therapy (music & sound), specifically the Prescription Audio treatment, on patients at a residential addiction treatment centre. The Prescription Audio treatment is the same in the Satori Chair employed by our service.
What they found measuring pre-treatment to post-treatment was significant (at least p <.00002) improvements for all ten of the withdrawal symptoms assessed: cravings; stress; depression; mood swing; anxiety; resentful; anger; fear; body aches, and headaches.
The following graphs show the solid results achieved in this study and suggest that Audio therapy may provide a level of relief for anyone suffering from the symptoms tested.
[1] Menon V, Levitin DJ (2005) The rewards of music listening: response and physiological connectivity of the mesolimbic system. Neuroimage 28: 175- 184.
[2] Morse S, Giordano J, Perrine K, Downs BW, Waite RL, et al. (2011) Audio Therapy Significantly Attenuates Aberrant Mood in Residential Patient Addiction Treatment: Putative Activation of Dopaminergic Pathways in the Meso-Limbic Reward Circuitry of Humans. J Addict Res Ther S3:001. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.S3-001