A long, long time ago, I still remember in 1697, the playwright and poet William Congreve sat down to mash up his latest offering for adoring fans. He put quill pen to paper and produced The Mourning Bride. Not the most catchy of titles, but it does contain the immortal couplet, ‘music hath charms to soothe a savage breast’. It also softens rocks and (un)bends knotted oaks. For those of you not into the English of this early period, the reference to a ‘savage breast’ has nothing to do with a ferocious Amazon warrior threatening to remove her bra. It only describes a racing heart beat (without any assistance being necessary from an Amazon).
Even in those days, music was considered great therapy. You could chill out to a lute or string quartet. Just gather a few musicians together, let them start up a tune, and your rock would soften and your knots dissolve. Moving into modern times, anxiety disorders are one of the most common complaints and the sale of medication to control anxiety represents big business. Despite the best efforts of the pharmaceutical industry that would prefer all to bow down and worship at the altar of their latest products, some researchers do actually look for alternative methods of treatment.
One of the more recent studies looked at the effectiveness of different types of massage The good news was that, regardless of the type, massage sessions were effective in reducing stress levels. Participants were given ten one-hour sessions and the improvement in their mood lasted for more than three months. In part, the explanation for this level of success is that the social interaction between the physical therapist and the patients helps to lift the mood. People find the one-to-one sessions of physical contact and talk relaxing and a constructive way of resolving problems. This is why the nature of the massage technique was proved irrelevant. Any form of rubbing has the same emotional effect. But this was not all good news. The researchers also found the same results among groups of people who did nothing more than listen to gentle music. Obviously, this is the cheapest kind of self-help therapy.
To test out the potential role of music, three further groups were created. One listened to music during a set of ten, one-hour massage sessions. The second was wrapped in a cocoon of warm towels (for the record, this is called thermotherapy) while music played. The third sat or lay quietly in their own homes, breathing deeply and thinking relaxing thoughts as the music played. There was no difference in the degree of benefit flowing from the three groups. All showed good levels of response and lower levels of anxiety. Put another way, despite their best efforts to find research evidence to favor professional services, the best value-for-money treatment was people relaxing to music in the peace of their own homes.
Of course, if anxiety levels remain at a troublesome high, there is always valium which, over a short period of time, will calm the savage breast and unknot your oak. But, no matter how effective valium may be, the best long-term treatment for generalized anxiety disorder or social disorder is relaxation to gentle music. It seems Congreve was right. So check through your CD collection or the contents of your iPod and find the music that works best for you.