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NEW YORK — They say music can soothe the savage beast. Now, doctors are discovering it can do a number on depression and other mental health issues.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center took part in a study to find out if cancer patients would respond to music therapy. Members on the medical team were surprised to find out that it was just as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy or talk therapy.
The Melody Study paired patients up with music therapists for a seven-week trial that involved activities that span from passive (listening to music) to active (creating music themselves).
New York DJ Cynthia Malaran, a breast cancer survivor, says the program did a lot to change her perspective.
“After my double mastectomy, I felt frozen. But when it came to music, I could raise my arms and go like this and feel like, ‘Oh, I forgot this even happened!’ And when you can forget, even for three minutes this has happened to you – that’s a win,” says Malaran.
Her therapist Camila Casaw remembers making a breakthrough with Malaran during humming exercises. She says, “That was something that was almost unlocked in her brain.”
Malaran says creativity began to flow more easily because “that vibration, that sound makes things percolate to the top. So I started putting words down, like ‘stressed, anxiety. And then random things like ‘flowers.'”
The result was an hypnotic, introspective song that’s unique to Malaran’s own experience and feelings.
