The study, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, found that both live and virtual music mindfulness sessions also reduced stress and altered participants’ state of consciousness, but only live music sessions fostered social connection between listeners.
“We desperately need community based, accessible, and affordable treatments for anxiety and depression,” said AZA Allsop, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry and the study’s senior author. “Music mindfulness impacts physiology and the psyche in a way that we can leverage to manage symptoms that lead to distress and hospitalization. We are excited to test this approach in a more general manner to directly assess its efficacy as a treatment for individuals in the community with mood disorders.”
Allsop is an artist, neuroscientist, and psychiatrist who researches social cognition, music mindfulness, and psychedelics. He is principal investigator at the AZA Lab at Yale School of Medicine. The lab investigates how music, mindfulness, and psychedelics can impact mental health and social behavior.
This study was done in collaboration with BLOOM community center in New Haven and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
