Study illustrates the importance of a broad view of medicine. 

A new study presented at the  American Academy of Pain Management finds that music helps improve the well being of patients withan  advanced stage of illness.

from Exposure to music therapy can dramatically improve the mental and physical condition of patients receiving palliative care, a new study suggests.  According to researchers, the study is the first large scale study to assess the physical and psychological effect of ,music as a therapy.

For the study, researchers looked at music as a therapy for about 200 participants and with chronic and/or advanced illnesses.  The illnesses included several types of cancer, pain disorders, sickle cell disease, serious heart conditions, AIDS and several other possibley terminal conditions.

Patience listened to music of their choice for an average of about 30 minutes daily, with family members often present.

Physical and psychological tests were conducted both before music therapy and after an initial therapy session. The results indicated that in addition to marked benefits in patient anxiety, mood, pain and shortness of breath, more than 80 percent of the patients said their mood had improved following music therapy.

Assessing the impact, researchers concluded that both the patients and the family members experienced positive benifits from the theropy in terms of mood and sense of well being.