Classical music may be potential depression treatment, study says

(CN) — Scientists in China acknowledged that classical music can affect a person’s mood, so they wanted to see if it could treat depression.

According to the scientists in their study published Friday in Cell Reports, approximately 50% of patients with major depressive disorder experience treatment-resistant depression, which means that a patient has a poor response to at least two antidepressant drugs with different mechanisms of actions, and has intolerance or poor response to non-convulsive therapy.

The scientists hoped that music would create an antidepressant effect where other factors failed.

"“Our research integrates the fields of neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurosurgery, providing a foundation for any research targeting the interaction between music and emotion,” said Bomin Sun, director and professor of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and senior author of the study.

The team focused on 23 patients between the ages of 18 and 65 that suffered from treatment-resistant depression using they electrodes already implanted in the patients’ brains.

Intended for deep-brain stimulation as part of major depressive disorder treatment, the electrodes are in a circuit connecting two areas in the forebrain — the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and the nucleus accumbens.

“The BNST-NAc circuit, sometimes referred to as part of the ‘extended amygdala,’ underscores the close relationship between this circuit and the amygdala, a central structure in emotional information processing,” Sun says. “This study reveals that music induces triple-time locking of neural oscillations in the cortical-BNST-NAc circuit through auditory synchronization.”

Through the implants, the scientists found that music creates antidepressant effects by synchronizing the neural oscillations between the auditory cortex, which processes sensory information, and the rewards circuit, which processes emotional information.

The team confirmed in one experiment involving 13 patients that a musical piece's emotional context does not necessarily have a significant effect on depression symptoms, so they then tested the influence of familiarity on the remaining 10 patients.

After creating a playlist of eight classical music pieces that no one in the 10-patient group listened to in the last year, the team said that they had the patients listen to the playlist three times a day for 14 days before rating their most and least favorite pieces.

Then, to see how subjective preferences affected emotions with familiar music, the scientists divided this group into two subgroups — those that listened to their favorite pieces known as the high enjoyment group, and those that listened to their least favorite pieces known as the low enjoyment group.

Using brainwave measurements and neural imaging techniques, the scientists soon saw significant results. They reported that the patients in the high enjoyment group demonstrated more significant neural synchronization and better antidepressant effects than those in the low enjoyment group.

From there, the scientists studied the antidepressant mechanisms of music in more detail and developed a personalized musical therapy plan for the low enjoyment group. The team said that they inserted theta frequency noise into music to enhance BNST-NAc oscillatory coupling, at which point the low enjoyment group reported higher music enjoyment.

Beyond this development, the team has several ideas for future study.

One goal is to study how music and the deep structures of the brain interact regarding depressive disorders. Sun also proposes introducing other forms of sensory stimuli such as visual images in future research.

“By collaborating with clinicians, music therapists, computer scientists and engineers, we plan to develop a series of digital health products based on music therapy, such as smartphone applications and wearable devices,” said Sun, “These products will integrate personalized music recommendations, real-time emotional monitoring and feedback, and virtual-reality multi-sensory experiences to provide convenient and effective self-help tools for managing emotions and improving symptoms in daily life.”

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