Anesthetist and pain therapist Dr. Ralph Spintge, who intro duced the term “MusicMedicine”, does not, in contrast to the MRT method, adhere to a specific musical direction. Instead, in his experience what helps is what people enjoy. He once said in an interview, “Young people who ask for techno to dull the pain mentally transport themselves into a disco situation. For older people, it is often simply the enjoy ment of music, in other words, hearing a piece of beautiful, classical music. Among men, there is also a demand for marching music, as a form of inner support.” Brain researcher Professor Erwin-Josef Speckmann is of the same opinion. He argues in favor of the kind of music that coaxes the brain into a state where it engages in the right kind of activity, i.e. medium activity, such as with the music used by Carl Orff for active music therapy. According to Speckmann, music has the ability “to shift” the activity in our brains “up or down a gear”. The medium level of activity is characterized by a state that Speckmann calls “attentive calm”. This can “be achieved through the music of Mozart and, equally well, that of Metallica or the music of Miles Davis. At the end of the day, everybody has individual musical preferences.” However, as a series of studies has shown, responding to patients’ musical tastes in this way is not the last word on the subject. In one investigation, 40 patients with coronary heart disease or high blood pressure and 20 healthy subjects had different items of music played to them: Indian meditation music, a rhythmic piece by Johann Strauss and an arhythmic string quartet by Hans Werner Henze. The subjects’ blood pressure was taken before and after hearing the music, a number of laboratory values were determined and an echocardiograph conducted, whereby the heart was displayed by means of acoustic waves. The results were surprising: the meditative music, which the subjects liked least, lowered their blood pressure by an average of 5 mm Hg; the levels of the stress hormones adrenaline and noradrenaline fell significantly. It is true that the other pieces also produced a posi tive effect, but to a much lesser extent. Ralph Spintge has discovered that, as an additional treatment, music is of great service in pain therapy. For example, he uses it before an operation, because many patients are frightened of the anesthetic. “Normally, ataractic drugs are used to calm these fears. However, these medicines only have an inadequate effect and, of course, side effects, as well. Accordingly, it was not long before we tried to use music to help here, and this can also be successful. We noticed that music led to a decrease in the production of pain and stress hor mones in the blood and that it is possible to induce a state approaching sleep in the EEG by additionally playing music during preparations for the anesthetic. And that in the field of pain therapy, sedatives and painkillers and the like are no longer necessary. Thus, we have been able to attribute a whole string of objectively measurable parameters to music.”

One reason that music triggers positive and beneficial reactions in the body is the increased production of something known as beta endorphins. These proteins, which contain morphine produced naturally in the body, dock on to certain receptors, block the transmission of pain signals and produce a euphoric state that superimposes itself over the sensation of pain, transposes the patient into a state of repose and brings harmony to his or her state of mind.