ABSTRACT

Music is powerful to create and regulate emotion and mood, and thus music therapists have used music in a variety of clinical settings such as hospitals, behavioral and psychiatric settings, care homes, and other healthcare provide locations. A number of studies have reported that pain, grief, stress, depression, anxiety, and the other problems can be effectively treated with music. Population aging is an inevitable global trend with far-reaching social problems such as increasing numbers of older patients who need emotional as well as medical care. Effectiveness of music therapy for the older adults was briefly reviewed in this article. Music therapy, which can be used in a variety of ways, helps the older adults to review their lives in the past, present and future, resulting in promoting their physical and mental health as well as those facing end-of-life to find hope, value, and meaning in their lives through music-evoked autobiographical memories. Music therapy has recently begun to be recognized as an efficient means of providing emotional support for the older adults in Korean society facing rapidly aging population.