Mental health and music are deeply intertwined, with music being able to powerfully impact emotions and psychological states.
A new study explores how music preferences and use of music for emotion modulation may change after the onset of mental disorders, providing intriguing findings on the complex role music can play in mental health.
Key facts:
- Most patients maintained their pre-existing music preferences after developing a mental disorder, considering music helpful for their mental state.
- A subgroup changed preferences, reporting music as impairing during illness. They used music less for emotion modulation.
- Some patients stopped listening to music altogether, viewing it as less important and unhelpful for their mental state.
Source: Mental Illn.
Music’s Impact on the Brain
Music has long been recognized for its ability to regulate our emotions.
Listening to empowering music can pick us up when we’re down or get us energized for a workout.
A sad song can make us feel understood in heartbreak.
Music is ubiquitous in daily life, giving us a powerful tool to modulate our emotional states.
But when mental illness enters the picture, the effects of music become much more complex.
Music may continue being a beneficial force, but research shows it can also be used in detrimental ways that worsen symptoms.
A new study dug into how music engagement changes when psychiatric disorders emerge.
It provides fascinating insights into music’s double-edged sword and how mental health treatment could better incorporate music’s emotional impact.
Maintaining Musical Preferences in Psychiatric Disorders
A study surveyed 123 psychiatric patients on how their music tastes changed after their mental disorder appeared.
Diagnoses included mood disorders, schizophrenia, addiction and more.
The most common result? Patients stuck with what they liked before.
65% maintained their exact same music preferences through the onset of illness.
This group felt music was advantageous during this difficult period, helping to improve their mental state.
On personality inventories, these patients scored higher in traits like confidence, determination and social attractiveness.
They also use music more actively for emotion regulation, especially to reduce negative emotions, relax and solve cognitive problems.
This suggests music can act as a stabilizing force when psychiatric issues emerge, for those who have developed helpful music-based coping strategies.
Pre-existing musical preferences represent resilience factors that patients can rely on in times of crisis.
Shifting Musical Preferences in Psychiatric Disorders
A subgroup went through a shift in preferences after the start of their disorder.
About 21% had a different music taste than before their illness.
Their personality profile differed – scoring lower in confidence and determination.
These patients reported music actually impaired their mental health while symptomatic. And they used music less to modulate their emotions.
Rather than a source of comfort, music became an aggravating factor for this group.
They seemed unable to leverage music’s emotional power in an advantageous way.
Losing Interest in Music from Mental Illness
Finally, some patients dropped music listening altogether once disordered.
Around 14% completely stopped listening after their symptoms began.
This group valued music less in general and saw it as unhelpful for mental health.
They used music less for mood regulation strategies like relaxation or controlling negative emotions.
Music was not embedded broadly in their lifestyle before illness onset.
So it became an easy target to eliminate when trying to minimize stressors during the height of symptoms.
Emotion Modulation Strategies Predicted Effect of Music
Emotion modulation refers to using music to influence qualitative aspects of mood and affect, not just increase or decrease emotional intensity.
Examples are relaxation, distraction from worries or boosting motivation.
The study found differences in emotion modulation strategies were more predictive of music helping or harming patients than musical genre preferences alone.
Those able to leverage music well for cognitive reappraisal and controlling negativity saw benefits.
Those who couldn’t ended up more impaired.
This highlights the importance of music listening skills.
Music’s effects depend heavily on the goals and strategies listeners bring to it.
Mental health treatment should educate patients on using music’s emotional power adaptively.
Personality Factors Interact with Music Preferences in Mental Disorders
Personality also emerged as relevant.
Traits like confidence, self-esteem and determination correlated with maintaining musical preferences and continuing to use music advantageously during illness.
Conversely, lower confidence and self-esteem related to changing preferences and worse music-based coping.
Personality gives some individuals resilience to stick with familiar music and leverage it effectively despite mental health challenges.
No Music Use Differences by Psychiatric Diagnosis
There were no differences in music preference or emotion modulation strategies across diagnostic categories.
For instance, patients with mood disorders did not differ from those with psychosis or addiction.
This highlights the importance of music engagement as an independent factor cutting across traditional mental health classification systems.
Musical behaviors may provide insights separate from clinical diagnoses.
Music Valence Matters More than Genre
The study found no genres inherently helpful or harmful across patients.
Rather, subjective experience of music as positive or negative mattered more.
Those who heard positivity used music better for coping.
Again this emphasizes that individual relationships with music hold more sway than any music type itself.
Two people could listen to the same song and have it improve or worsen their mental state based on personal history and listening goals.
Music & Mental Health: May Help with Emotions
Music is a nearly universal experience that most psychiatrically ill patients continue to engage with in some way.
This offers a powerful conduit for treatment interventions.
Findings indicate clinicians should:
- Assess music preferences and emotional relationships to music
- Teach emotion modulation techniques through music
- Advise disengaging from negatively-viewed music
- Encourage maintained use of positively-viewed music
- Consider personally-enjoyable music in therapy
In particular, disconnecting from negatively-perceived music and building skills to modulate emotions through positively-perceived music could improve coping.
Shifting musical behaviors may sometimes matter more than the content listened to.
With further research, music-based psychosocial education and treatment practices hold great promise for improving quality of life across mental disorders.
Music provides a unique lens into the emotional worlds of patients and a valuable tool for psychiatry’s belt.
Tapping into its potent psychological effects could help recovery.
References
- Study: The change of music preferences following onset of a mental disorder
- Authors: Stefan Gabhardt & Richard von Georgi (2015)
