Table of Contents

Editorial

Transitions are healthy

Joanne Loewy

Comment

Comments on study: Effect of patient selected music therapy on propofol consumption in laparoscopic cholecystectomy under total intravenous anaesthesia

Fred Schwartz

Full Length Articles

Effect of patient selected music therapy on propofol consumption in laparoscopic cholecystectomy under total intravenous anaesthesia: A randomised controlled trial

Dr. Tanvi Goel, Dr. Farah Husain, Dr. Sonia Wadhawan, Dr. Amit Kohli, Dr. Smita Kaushik

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Foundational considerations of trauma in music therapy & trauma-specific treatment: Part 1 – trauma history, definitions & core concepts

Kristen Stewart

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Foundational considerations of trauma in music therapy & trauma-specific treatment: part 2 – trauma theory, frameworks & applications in music therapy

Kristen Stewart

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Evaluating music medicine with IV ketamine for pediatric forearm fracture reduction in a tertiary emergency setting

Kendall Luyt, Curtis Knoles, Amanda Bogie

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Musicians’ Focal Dystonia awareness and performance-related health discourse within the one-to-one conservatory teaching environment: A comparative analysis

David Gardner

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Oxytocin facilitates physiological synchronization with music – a pilot study

Tores Theorell, Björn Vickhoff, Rebecka Jörnsten, Johan Snygg, Gunnar Nyberg, Rickard Åström, Michael Nilsson

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Reporting guidelines for music-based interventions checklist: Explanation and elaboration guide

Sheri L. Robb, K. Maya Story, Elizabeth Harman, Debra S. Burns, Joke Bradt, Emnmeline Edwards, Tasha L. Golden, Christian Gold, John R. Iversen, Assal Habibi, Julene K. Johnson, Miriam Lense, Susan M. Perkins, Stacey Springs

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Feature: Editorial by Dr. Joanne Loewy

“Go while the going is good-knowing when to leave may be the smartest thing that anyone can learn….Go…..” — Hal David

I have been hesitant to write this Editorial because it represents my transitioning from doing something I love–which is editing, toward moving into areas of research which are of personal interest to me. And in this case, the most difficult part of the transition is because I have worked with a Team that is top notch-just the finest group of professionals in the world. We have rolled well, steady and strong.

‘Music and Medicine;’ started in 2008 with the support of SAGE and a team that thought that the integration of music and medicine was incredibly powerful, and they sought to support it. Dr. Russell Portenoy our Pain and Palliative Medicine Chair at Beth Israel Medical Center lined me up with Shelly Withers from Sage. Off we went….creating a community of like-minded leaders to be Founding Members and Researchers for our Editorial Board.

Fast forward, 17 years, and it is time for me to turn over my leadership to others who are the best in the business! Dr. Amy Clements-Cortes is smart, savvy, reliable and full of knowledge, grace and wisdom. She will stay on and apply her tremendous skills as managing editor, to be co-Editor in Chief, along with Dr. Ralph Spintge, our Father of music and medicine. Dr. Spintge has been my ‘partner’ in this work and always has had the vision, of blending medical history and music therapy knowledge, and a deep respect of the integration. I have been surrounded with help in doing this work.

My two brothers of knowledge and competence; Bernardo Canga and Erik Baumann. These men are true scholars and have made this journal fly. With international abstract translations and making people’s work look beautiful, respectively, I could not have asked for smarter, kinder more fun people to work with. I had the advantage of knowing them from their Fellowships at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine. They both have surpassed my expectations.

Why now? It is a perfect time to step aside because we are flying high! We started in a vulnerable place when our 5-year contract with SAGE was up, and we were left to ‘manage’ ourselves. Dr. Helen Shoemark was my rock and instrumental in this passage, as was then IAMM president Dr. Jane Edwards and our first copy editor Dr. Julian Koenig. We were fierce in our belief that we could take on not only the survival, but enhance the growth of this journal, and that we have! Why and how, has a lot to do with music therapists and medical staff being at the hands-on helm of producing the journal. The support of our IAMM leaders has been fierce. Our conferences, simply amazing. Dr. Patravoot Vantasapt, and Dr Suzanne Hanser-support and respect beyond measure-I am grateful for your leadership.

Our raison d’etre and a mission of the IAMM has always been to reach as many people in the world as possible and to support their foundations, practice and growth. We were less concerned with academic prowess and impact factoring which, conceptually and politically had shown some skewed damage in recent years. [1, 2] Our aim to feature people in remote, underserved communities has remained strong. Our support to boost and highlight the integration of music, music therapy and medicine is exemplar and highlighted today by Dr. Fred Schwartz’s press release featuring one of our current prominent articles reflecting, with clips, the music used in anesthesiology. The world is listening with interest.

I feel grateful and fortunate to have had the support of my medical and musical friends and colleagues as we gradually closed my home hospital Beth Israel, but then we bloomed with in the merge with Mount Sinai and attracted NIH grants and a two-year NEA lab grant. Last year we gained admittance of administration within the Department of Medicine as our work was promoted into the Icahn School of Medicine. In 2023, I was promoted to Full Professor. We have attracted new grants and have stretched into new and untouched areas of care in the hospital, community and beyond.

I have learned so much from our Journal team, especially Dr. Amy Clements-Cortes, who is deft at knowing how to be influential and kind at the same time. I have watched her work grow clinically and politically. She will make an exemplar co-Editor in Chief.

Dr. Mark Ettenberger and Dr. Marija Pranjic (also a former Research fellow at the LACMM) will make fantastic Associate Editors because separately and together within the two of them, our field is covered form birth through end of life, and everything in between. Their many publications and lectures have proven to deeply penetrate our field and have stretched within the global community of practice and research. We have chosen well and I am certain their knowledge and know-how, as Associate Editors will grow this journal into even greater gardens of integration.

I am grateful to Sheri Robb whose constant plight to have described detailed aspects of music interventions and decision-making has remained strong and vibrant. Her voice is constant and has served as a supervising entity to me as I have edited countless articles that needed music reporting-specifically, inclusion of which music, the dose and delivery. The updated version of the reporting guidelines is re-published with permission in this journal current journal.

Articles in This Issue

In this journal, first, the Effect of patient selected music therapy on propofol consumption in laparoscopic cholecystectomy under total intravenous anesthesia: A randomized controlled trial by Tanvi Goel, Farah Husain, Sonai Wadhawan, Amit Kohli, Smita Kaushik, we see a randomized controlled study of interoperative music therapy on propofol consumption in laparoscopic cholecystectomy patients Once again we witness how nonpharmacological treatments can support reduced anesthetic requirements while also assisting in perioperative stress. These results support increased integration of music in combination with procedures involving anesthesia given the positive impact and point to the importance of interdisciplinary collaborations.

Next in a two part article about music therapy and trauma, entitled Foundational Considerations of Trauma in Music Therapy & Trauma-specific Treatment: Part I – Trauma History, Definitions & Core Concepts, Kristen Stewart helps clarify current understandings of trauma-related issues relevant across music therapy practice environments.

In part-one of this two-part article series, she reviews foundational principles of trauma, including trauma terminology, history, definitions, and core concepts that impact most music therapy and trauma treatment areas. In Stewart’s Part II – Trauma Theory, Frameworks Foundational Considerations of Trauma in Music Therapy & Trauma-specific & Applications in Music Therapy, Kristen has provided us with a detailed, hefty second part which extends foundational principles of trauma to consider some of the commonly referenced trauma theories. It also explores trauma frameworks and applications in music therapy.

Next, In Evaluating Music Medicine with IV Ketamine for Pediatric Forearm Fracture Reduction in a Tertiary Emergency Setting Kendall Luyt, Chris Knoles, Amanda Bogie share their study on the effectiveness of music medicine to support IV Ketamine during procedural sedation in pediatric both bone forearm fractures. Specifically, they chose Brahms’ Wiegenlied for music listening for its relaxation and physiological entrainment abilities. Their study adds to the limited research in the arena of combining music medicine and pharmacological sedation in pediatric patients. Even though the music experience did not alter sedation outcomes, it did contribute to patient comfort and a more relaxed atmosphere. Like many studies, authors underscore the fact that music used during procedural support offers a cost effective, non-invasive opportunity and aligns with this finding from Tanvi and colleagues.

Tomoko Ichinose, Kenzo Akazawa, Kakuko Matsumoto Ryuhei Okuno, Tsutomu Masuko write about Cymis, a new electronic music instrument promotes voluntary finger movement in a 58 year old female with cerebral palsy This music instrument, Cymis, was utilized with an adult female with Cerebral Palsy to promote finger dexterity. The client took part in both individual and group music therapy and the result of her achievements also afforded other benefits such as increased motivation.

Musicians’ focal dystonia (MFD) is a subject that deserves further attention. In this edition of Music and Medicine author David Gardner shares his study, Musicians’ Focal Dystonia Awareness and Performance-related Health Discourse Within the One-to-One Conservatoire Teaching Environment: A Comparative Analysis he investigated MFD: a condition impairing fine motor skills and coordination. In this parallel survey design research, teachers and students in UK conservatories revealed noteworthy variations in the awareness of MDF and the results acknowledge the need for more educational awareness around performance related health issues. Recommendations for educational initiatives are also provided.

In Töres Theorell, Björn Vickhoff, Rebecka Jörnsten, Johan Snygg, Gunnar Nyberg, Rickard Åström, Michael Nilsson’s Oxytocin facilitates physiological synchronization with music – a pilot study, the team explored whether high baseline oxytocin enhanced neurophysiological synchronization with music. Their pilot study involving 20 participants who listened to motivation or soothing music via headphones offers a first step towards an improved understanding of probable associations of spontaneous oxytocin levels in plasma to psychophysiological reactions to different kinds of music.

Finally, we are proud to reprint Reporting Guidelines for Music-Based Interventions checklist: Explanation and elaboration guide where Sheri L. Robb, K. Maya Story, Elizabeth Harman, Debra S. Burns, Joke Bradt, Emmeline Edwards Tasha L. Golden, Christian Gold, John R. Iversen, Assal Habibi, Julene K. Johnson, Miriam Lense, Susan M. Perkins, Stacey Springs provide aspects of music-based interventions (MBI) and music therapy research. The manner in which authors report the use of music in their studies is of the upmost importance. Sadly, it is not uncommon to read studies about MBIs and not see any description of the music. This in essence makes it difficult to understand how the music made a change and also what music was used and why. Music reporting guidelines were first created in 2011 and have been recently updated by Robb and colleagues. As we reprinted back in 2011, we are pleased again, with permission to be reprinting these guidelines in our journal as we ask all authors to adhere to them in their submissions. Congratulations to Dr. Sheri Robb and her team on this monumental achievement.

Conclusion

I am more than grateful for the new colleagues and friends I have made during my decade plus tenure at Music and Medicine. I am thankful to you, our readership, for being interested and engaged in our journal. Hoping to see you all in Bangalore, India in October 2026, one year from now.

References

1. Beware the impact factor, NATURE MATERIALS | VOL 12 | FEBRUARY 2013 | www.nature.com/naturematerials
2. Bornmann L, Marx W. The journal Impact Factor and alternative metrics: A variety of bibliometric measures has been developed to supplant the Impact Factor to better assess the impact of individual research papers. EMBO Rep. 2016 Aug;17(8):1094-7. doi: 10.15252/embr.201642823. Epub 2016 Jun 28. PMID: 27354417; PMCID: PMC4967953

Contact: Joanne V. Loewy Email: joanne.loewy@mountsinai.org