Genote at the Vicenza Hospital

After months of preparation, we finally get to start our music protocol at the Vicenza Hospital! After getting cleared by the Internal Review Board, we have the opportunity to test our entire procedure for pain management with babies for the first time.

The randomized study was designed to evaluate the effects of a Structured Music Listening Protocol on pain reduction for newborn babies that are going through a metabolic screening test 36 hours after birth. The test requires the nurse to prick a baby’s heel and squeeze some blood on a special paper to be sent to the lab for the analysis. Since newborn babies don’t have a high volume of blood, the pressure required to get enough blood out for the test can go on for several minutes.

Ouch.

Our hypothesis was that the babies receiving the music intervention, in addition to the standardized technique, might show a beneficial effects on pain reduction and pain management.

The morning the study was to begin, we had a brief meeting to introduce the research implementation staff to the procedure. The staff was represented by a pediatrician, a nurse, and two obstetric students. After the doctor described the procedure and Edoardo Guerra, our CSO and resident psychologist, presented some important aspects of the music methodology, we entered a small room selected for its low sound level.

Each of us were very focused and anxious for the first trial. The team of nurses selected two babies at random. The first received the procedure as per the standard hospital procedures (without music) and the second received the an additional Structured Listening Protocol. We paid close attention to everything that could affect the baby in the study: the type of light, sound level, distance of the speaker for the music, etc. Our preparation was scrupulously evaluated, up to the moment we were ready for our first baby. 

The nurses brought the first baby inside the room with his cradle. He was sleeping and in a very quiet state. They placed him on the changing table and started the restraint procedure (wrapping technique and a pacifier with sucrose). The nurse pricked the baby’s heel and started squeezing the blood out for the analysis. The baby’s heart rate changed significantly and he went from a state of sleep to being agitated and fussy. The nurses were more tense, too. By the end of the several minute procedure, the baby was agitated and tired.

Then it was the second baby’s turn. He was sleeping too, but after he entered the room he started to wake up grumpily. The nurses did the same procedure, taking the same amount of time as they did with the other baby, but this time they turned on the Structured Listening Music Protocol. After they turned the music on the room’s environment changed completely, going from a harsh/cold medical room to a familiar and more qualitative care environment. The music was imposing they baby’s rhythm, emotion, and beauty on us. But more importantly, it was affecting the baby too. After just a few seconds of music, he listened to it, he turned toward it, and gradually returned to a quiet state. The nurse continued the procedure, and the baby never changed his quiet state throughout the entire procedure. The nurses were more relaxed and the baby was put in his cradle again and returned to his mom.

We won’t know the official results from the study at the Vicenza Hospital for quite some time, but these experiences give us a firm hope and a renewed resolution to advance music’s collaboration with medicine.

To keep up with more Genote™ studies and find opportunities to apply our music albums to your own medical experience, follow this blog and check out our website at www.genotelab.com.

Music After Cardiac Surgery: The Abbott Northwestern Experiment

Today we wanted to highlight an institution’s endeavors to validate a particular value that we hold as a company: that music should be used a tool to enhance traditional methods of care in hospitals.

At the Abbott Northwestern Hospital, doctors conducted a study to determine music’s effect on stress, anxiety and pain levels for heart patients immediately after undergoing cardiac surgery. This jumping off point highlighted a substantial problem in hospitals: surgery patients really do suffer from acute or chronic stress, anxiety and pain. These problems can manifest themselves in myriad ways that likely don’t help the surgical procedure. Sleeping habits, blood chemistry, and post operational healing, for example, can all be negatively affected by stress and anxiety.

The study found a significant confirmation of the hypothesis; music really does reduce anxiety, stress and pain even in a high-stress situation like a post cardiac operation.

Music was found to reduce pain.

The results of the study are encouraging for all those who look to expand the use of music in medicine. However, for this study’s practical impact to take root, practitioners face looming obstacles such as music selection standards, audio equipment, music licensing fees, responding to patient musical feedback, training personnel, etc…

These questions are important and the medical world is taking steps forward daily toward resolving them. Music therapy organizations and companies like Genote™ commit enormous amounts of research and study to bridge the gap between doctors’ practice and music’s application in medicine. One day, music will work side by side with medical institutions for the benefit of the patients and the employees.

After all, if music has been scientifically proven to reduce pain and discomfort after surgery, why shouldn’t it be in every hospital?

We are happy that the Abbott Northwestern Hospital continues to develop their research on music and pain in the clinical experience.

Learn more about how music can benefit hospitals and patients at www.genotelab.com

3 Powerful Ways Health Music Can Enhance Athletic Performance

What if I told you that listening to expertly selected music compositions, in specific moments of your physical exercise could  improve your health, recovery and physical results?

Music is made up of both many individual components and, especially,relationships between those components. Like in chemistry, where different components create chemical reactions, in music, different  elements, such as tempo, rhythm, instrumentation, can trigger different reactions from people like modify breathing patterns, generate positive emotions and many other effects on psychophysiological parameters.

I want to share with you some tips on how integrating Health Music in your daily physical exercise routine will improve your health and recovery. Whether you are an amateur or a professional, you can witness real change. Each of the therapeutic areas described below can be found in Genote with a variety of Health Music protocols to tackle and improve your training and personal health.

We can summarize that major psychophysiological mechanisms, dedicated to  increasing physical performance  are linked to music’s ability to regulate arousal, and direct and increase our capacity to focus while increasing positive emotional responses and feelings.

Stress Reduction

Practice, strenuous training, and physical activity are often associated with physical and mental stress related to fatigue, change of habits or pressure by competitions and required improvement. However, even if there is a positive side of stress, like cold eustress that allows us to be more reactive and ready to perform, having high levels of continued stress might cause serious health issues. Listening to music can decrease stress and anxiety, cortisol levels, heart rate and blood pressure in people of all ages. Genote Health Music is the largest collection of therapeutic sound and music protocols made available for health, and it is so powerful in reducing stress and anxiety that is currently incorporated both in medical interventions and mental health institutions.  

Sleep and Recovery

Recovery is one of the basic principles of training methodology (Rushall & Pyke, 1990). Athletes work hard to prepare and perform successfully. Unfortunately, many ignore or forget the performance benefits and the injury protection derived by including recovery within their daily training programs.  Listening to music after intensive exercise has been proven to decrease  the time needed to recover (Eliakim et al., 2013). Additionally, the College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia discovered  how music was found to decrease anxiety related to illness and medical procedures by increasing the speed and the quality of physical recovery.

Supercompensation theory, showing the role of recovery in athletic performance.

Focus and Motivation

Because music stimulates the reward system, changes mood and enhances focus, it is no  surprise that it has been used to attend  important competitions and performances. In a study conducted by Dr. Karageorghis and Priest a,b, in 2012 they showed how music lead a range of positive effects, in lowering the perception fatigue, increasing motivation and enhancing perceived energy levels of athletes during physical exercise. Studies also show how music can increase visual perception and visual attention in patients with damage in areas related  to perception.   

The Yerkes–Dodson law originally developed by psychologist Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908, dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point.

Training is a matter of balance, motivation and consistency. It is important to keep in mind the direct effect of your routine in the efforts of enhancing your athletic performance. Recovery is a key aspect in building athletic performance. Optimized recovery allows high intensity training and better focus in the execution.

Music for Depression

Since 2003, Genote has been focused on developing Health Music protocols for the mental health arena. Initially, we wanted a chance to assist the therapeutic process by creating a mentorship-like relationship between a music experience and a patient. After 2012, Genote identified a few pivotal, working elements in the therapeutic cycle: problems such as insomnia, depression, anxiety, and lack of concentration, rigid thinking and distress tolerance. These mental health issues are now considered crucial in building healthy lifestyles, and professionals seek to offer appropriate developmental tools to people of all ages.

It is rewarding is to see how Health Music protocols are being applied for adolescents at risk, in dire conditions and even desperate stages of their lives.

Based on the Music Education Therapy method (MET), through Genote technology, we created a Music Mentorship Program to support and increase therapeutic objectives, educational experiences and health targets. We combined Genote Health Music (for Sleep, Anxiety, Focus, Rigid Thinking and Distress Tolerance) with group sessions called “Sundown”.  The Music Mentorship program helps young people in clinical environments and diverse clinical settings while they struggle with different aspects of mental health.

Clinical settings, even lock-down facilities, require a tailored, differentiated implementation according to each institution’s specific goals, environment and workload.

Genote has been successfully applied and evaluated in NICUs, professional sport teams, wellness programs, and alzheimer treatment clinics. We’d like to take this opportunity to share some first hand accounts of how individuals have found personal benefits through Genote Health Music.

We feel fortunate to get the chance to help youth in Residential Treatment Centers. One of your partner organizations, Elevations RTC, has implemented a variety of Genote programs and tackled different psychological and mental health issues. While working with their resident therapists and psychologists to equip students with personalized access to the Genote Library, students and staff participate in individual sessions, group sessions and other initiatives. More and more students are using the program as they witness positive experiences from their peers. The students decide to sign up, experience Genote, and move forward all on their own initiative.

Here is one student’s description of his experience.

“The Genote Project that I have experienced began as a trial project with 5 other kids in the back of a library listening to and discussing classical music. Since then, 6 months have passed by and the program has progressed past it’s first stages; For me, and now many others, every week I spend in Genote has been more than beneficial. The relationship we have developed with the Genote Team has become therapeutic and deep. The trust that has been the foundation of their work has allowed the bond we have created to flourish. The wisdom they share and the time they have spent has not only improved our knowledge and understanding of music, but our knowledge and understanding of healthy living. I’m thankful for what they have done and excited to see where their program goes.”

— Sam

Thinking Aloud with Classical89

When Classical89 asked if they could feature us in their show, Thinking Aloud, we were excited and a little hesitant because, frankly, being interviewed on the radio can be really scary.

Fortunately, between the three of us, we could help each other out. We think the program turned out pretty well. Give it a listen.

We were particularly delighted by our experience with Marcus Smith, the host of Thinking Aloud, because he grasped on to what we were trying to communicate very quickly. We could tell he lived for music, and was a strong believer in the power it might have on our lives.

When we talk to people about the Genote™ method, including our research studies, there is always a distinguishing moment recognizable on their faces when things start to click. It is one of the best parts of spreading the news: watching people’s cautious optimism about music’s effect on the mind and body be solidified into something a little more concrete. Usually when a person realizes the gravity of what we are saying, the eyes expand ever so slightly and the mouth opens just a little wider. For us, seeing the Genote™ moment happen to others is so resonant because it reminds us of how the project started in the first place.

Most of all, we were grateful to Marcus because he understood our big picture message: Genote™ music is a scientific, research-validated, quantified approach to music and medicine.

After the interview, we stayed for quite some time chatting off the air, talking about important music moments in each of our lives. He even showed us the impressive Classical89 library, an experience we won’t soon forget.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out Thinking Aloud, go over to their website and give the show a listen. It is definitely worth the time.

To learn more about our science, method and music, visit http://www.genotelab.com