Brain May Benefit From Its Own Music

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Brain May Benefit From Its Own Music

By is Grant

In a few weeks, Mai Tran will make a habit of slipping on her

headphones before she goes to bed, and again when she wakes. But she

won't be listening to her favorite blues or pop. Instead, she'll fall

asleep and wake up to the music of her own brain.

Tran, who has long experienced depression, is hoping a treatment called

Brain Music Therapy will help her better control her emotions.

The music, which sounds like a simple piano melody, is a complex

interpretation of each patient's brain waves, intended to prompt the

body to relax or become more alert. Listening to it several times a

day, advocates say, can benefit patients with sleep disorders, anxiety,

depression and other ailments.

"Your brain is actually listening to the best of itself," said

Wade, a psychotherapist who offers Brain Music Therapy at his practice,

the Institute for Family Psychology, in WHouston. "It models itself

after the brain music."

Developed overseas in the early 1990s, the therapy made its way to the

U.S. only about a year ago. Since then, Wade and his partner, Carol

Kershaw, who believe they are the only psychologists offering the

procedure in the Houston area, have used it for nearly 100 patients. It

has worked for most, they say.

But there's still doubt in the medical community about the therapy's legitimacy.

"When I put on my science hat, I'm skeptical," said Max Hirshkowitz,

director of the sleep center at the E. DeBakey VA Medical

Center. "When I put on my clinical hat, I'll do anything that works."

Hirshkowitz, who also is a professor of medicine at the Baylor College

of Medicine, said he's not convinced, partly because it's unclear

exactly how the brain waves are made into music. That information is

proprietary.

A relatively small study conducted in 2002 showed that patients who

listened to their own brain music suffered fewer symptoms of insomnia

and anxiety than those who listened to someone else's brain music.

Hattie Thurlow-McKinley, a League City, Texas, resident who tried Brain

Music Therapy in April after having trouble sleeping for years, is

among those who believe in it. Before trying the technique, she says,

she could fall asleep in the evening, but woke up several times during

the night, worrying about the following day.

"Now I sleep more soundly. I've started dreaming again," said Thurlow-McKinley, who works as a family therapist.

Like all Brain Music Therapy patients, Thurlow-McKinley has two music

files: a nine-minute "relaxation" tune she listens to at bedtime and a

three-minute "activation" song for when she rises. Some patients who

suffer from anxiety or depression are encouraged to listen to the

relaxation and activation tunes back-to-back when they feel stressed.

The technique isn't cheap, and it's not covered by insurance. The first

recording costs about $550 and is effective for about three months for

most patients because the brain adapts to the music. Patients then, for

the same price, are encouraged to get a second recording, which usually

lasts about four years, Kershaw says.

That's what Tran plans to do. She already has taken the first step:

allowing Kershaw to record her brain activity using an

electroencephalogram, or EEG, a procedure that took about five minutes.

Kershaw will send the recording to a laboratory in New York City, where it will be translated into music.

Tran, a 45-year-old manicurist, wondered about the type of music her brain would create.

"Not rap music, I hope," she said, smiling.

is Grant can be reached at alexis.grant@....http://www.thirdage.com/news/articles/ALT02/08/01/18/ALT02080118-01.html