Indian music therapy: could it be helpful in the management of mental depression?

The literature shows evidence that music is an effective means of aiding in treatment of mental depression. However, Indian classical music which has been widely used as an adjuvant therapy in mental depression lacks the scientific research to establish a proper area of medical treatment. Hence an attempt was made to study the effect of few selected ragas of Indian Classical Music on mental depression. The study was conducted on 40 clinically diagnosed mentally depressed patients, in the age group of 15–45 years who were not undergoing any medical treatment. These patients were given music therapy for 45–60 minutes each day for a period of 15 days. Patients were analyzed based on the Goldberg questionnaire before and after the therapy. Clinically diagnosed severe depressive patients were excluded from the study. We found a profound decrease in the levels of depression in an individual, post-therapy, based on the Goldberg Depression Questionnaire scoring. The results showed, the significant difference in the pre-therapy to post-therapy score favoring a decrease in the level of depression (P < 0.0001). According to the Goldberg Depression Questionnaire, a 5 point change in the score is significant. Further studies based on biochemical parameters could show more accurate results in the future and effect of music therapy on other vital parameters of the body and experimenting with the variation in the effect in correlation with the type of music used could show great promise.