Effectiveness of Music Therapy as an Intervention:An Emperical Evaluation of Alzheimer Caregiver's Burden and Quality of Life

Caregivers of aged Alzheimer's patients were found to be particularly vulnerable to burn out and expressed feelings of anger, anxiety, isolation and depression. The burden of care giving was therefore found to be associated with reduced quality of life. In this study the “quality of life” and “perception care giver burden” were assessed using the adapted 12 item version of the Zarit Burden Interview (AZI) and the WHO Quality of Life (BREF) instrument. The care givers coping and quality of psychological effectiveness in dealing with multi-tasking pattern of work were analyzed. 103 care givers of Alzheimer's patients in Visakhapatnam were randomly assigned into three groups. The first group of care givers were monitored to listen 20 minutes of Chakra Balancing Instrumental Music per day over a period of one month. The second group of care givers participated in a one hour 'support Alzheimer's' group discussion held a once a week for a period of one month. The third group comprised of the control group with no interventions given. Results indicated significantly lesser degree of burden and higher level of quality of life experience for the group of care givers monitored with music. The control group of subjects reported highest index of burden perceptions with lower quality of life evaluations. Findings of the study are recommending the use of music therapy as an alternative intervention technique to facilitate stress release, improve relaxation and balance, better psychosocial health and better coping techniques for care givers.