Music is a lifesaver

Over the weekend, I had the chance to listen to Music Matters, a BBC Radio 3 Programme. This particular episode focused on the benefits of music on mental health, to mark World Mental Health Day. Tom Service presented a special programme in collaboration with Professor Sally Marlow, Professor of Practice in Public Understanding of Mental Health Research, at King's College London and BBC Radio 3's first ever Researcher in Residence.

As a former placement King's College London student working on SHAPER PND, a Wellcome-funded clinical trial focusing on music for postnatal depression, I was interested to understand additional perspectives. The show highlighted the various ways in which music can make individuals feel better, across a range of mental health conditions. Throughout the show, at different points, the voice of speakers would be drowned out by short tunes, providing a calming atmosphere, and allowing the listener to reflect on what had just been said.

This programme was able to portray valuable insights from individuals across a varied background, from researchers to musicians, to composers, and singers. A common theme all the speakers discussed was how music can improve mental health. Fiona Lambert, from City of London Symphonia, talked about their the 'Sound Young Minds' project, which worked with children with severe mental illnesses. This project left behind, in the words of Fiona, moments of joy in this dark period of young persons' life, and so helped in creating positive memories. What also stood out to me was composer Gavin Higgin's experience of how being in a brass band helped him manage his OCD symptoms during childhood. He highlighted how music is not frivolous, it is lifesaving, which I found so powerful, expressed in such a simple manner. There was also an interesting discussion on the support provided to the performers of the opera Last Days, based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, and portraying intense topics such as drug abuse and suicide, is important to have accessible psychological support for the artists.

This BBC show is of interest to mental health practitioners and researchers who are keen to integrate music and the creative arts into clinical pathways. It provides insight into this widely discussed field, and reaffirms the current evidence base of the positive impact of music on mental health. Moreover, there were so many powerful stories in this show, from different perspectives, which I found unique and interesting. For example,  there was a discussion about how the heavy metal music genre, contrary to popular belief, can actually be quite calming for certain individuals, and I am now curious to learn more. Towards the end of the show, there was a discussion about a mixtape consisting of, among others, drumming tunes, a piece by a former music teacher living with dementia, and Sufi music.

To sum up, this show was highly intriguing, and the short breaks with music allowed for a lot of reflective moments. Above all, it displayed the need to integrate creative output, especially in the form of music, into clinical pathways, to help all aspects of mental health.

Reviewed by Riddhi Laijawala, King's College London