We evolved as music lovers. Now there's evidence that it can lower blood pressure and lighten anxiety – and it reaches part of the brain other treatments don't

Is music therapy bouncing back? (Image: BSIP/UIG via Getty Images)

IN A hospital in north London, a group of adults with mental health problems improvise a song while listening to a low-pitched hum. In a consulting suite in New York City, a cancer patient gets her chemotherapy and a quartz crystal singing bowl “treatment” at the same time. At kindergarten, a child with autism is taught new words by hearing them sung. At a care home for the elderly, people with dementia are played old-time tunes to help them recover lost memories.

Across the Western world, music therapy is becoming increasingly common. Although some treatments may seem a bit New Age, the idea has an instinctive appeal to many. After all, we are a musical species – our ancestors have been healing with sound for millennia, and today many of us play music to alter our moods. But how exactly does sound affect our minds and bodies? And just how does music stand up as a treatment for medical disorders? Surprisingly, these questions are only just starting to be answered.

“Most of what we think we know about music therapy comes from anecdotes,” says neuroscientist and musician Daniel Levitin at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. “And it’s important to remember that the plural of anecdote is not data.” Even enthusiasts like Ciara Reilly, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust, agree. “For a long time, we relied on anecdotal evidence and small-scale research findings about how well music therapy works,” she says.