23.7. 1993 Vitoria-Gasteiz / Spain - World Federation of Music Therapy

conditions had a more significant effect on anxiety. It
also suggests that there was little difference in the
treatment effect between 'live' and recorded music.
It appeared that, as with the non-handicapped
population, music could be used with the mentally
handicapped as an alternative to other relaxation
techniques.
And so, now we move on to consider one of the subjects
in more detail.
Sarah, had a mental handicap coupled with a history of
hysterical and psychotic behaviour. She was extremely
anxious and frequently became aggressive. She was
unable to sit in one place for any length of time and
constantly clenched and unclenched her fists. Auditory
hallucinations caused her to scream, bang her head
and beat her fists against the wall.
Sarah was choosen as a subject for the pilot study. As
Subject C she was randomly allocated to spend ten
225
eight-minute treatment sessions listening to my own
singing accompanied by guitar. She responded
positively to (Figure 3) treatment. The effect of
treatment on her pulse rate varied for the first five
sessions. She seemed to need this time to come to
terms with the individual attention. However in the last
five sessions her pulse rate was consistently lower
(Figure 4) after treatment. Sarah's behavioural rating
decreased
significantly on all but one occasion, and there was a
trend towards an increasing degree of relaxation
following treatment.
A closer examination of her case notes indicated some
degree of generalisation, and suggested that there was
evidence to support the long term effect of listening to
relaxing music (Hooper and Lindsay 18 ). An entry
described how, on the evening after the ninth treatment
session, she became anxious after being taken to bed.
Soft music was played on a tape recorder and she fell