The music of Mozart and Strauss is able to lower
blood lipid concentrations and the heart rate. This
is the result of a study of the effect of different
musical genres on the cardiovascular system, which
Hans-Joachim Trappe und Gabriele Volt of Ruhr
University Bochum present in the current issue of
Deutsches Ärzteblatt International.
The researchers allocated 120 study participants as
follows: half of the subjects were exposed to music
for 25 minutes. Subdivided into three groups they
were played recorded music by either W. A. Mozart,
J. Strauss Jr., or the pop band ABBA.
The remaining 60 subjects were allocated to a
control group that spent their time in silence.
Before and after exposure to music and quiet time,
respectively, all participants had their blood
pressure, heart rate, and cortisol concentration
measured.
Classical music by Mozart and Strauss notably
lowered blood pressure and heart rate, whereas no
substantial effect was seen for the songs of ABBA.
In the control group, resting in a supine position
also resulted in blood pressure lowering, but the
effect was far less pronounced than for exposure to
the music of Mozart or Strauss.
All musical genres resulted in notably lower
cortisol concentrations.
As far as cortisol concentrations were concerned,
the sex of the participants must have played a part,
because the drop in cortisol levels was more
pronounced in men than in women, especially after
exposure to the music of Mozart and Strauss.
Comparison with the control group showed that the
effect of music was far greater than that of
silence.
For more information
Trappe H-J, Voit G: The cardiovascular effect of
musical genres—a randomized controlled study on the
effect of compositions by W. A. Mozart,
J. Strauss, and ABBA. Dtsch Arztebl Int 2016; 113:
347–52.
DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.2016.034
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Music Therapy in Palliative Care
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