Christian RuizProfessor Chanelle VigueSPCH121-009: MWF 10:00-10:5010 February 2014

Informative Speech Outline: Music as Therapy for Alzheimers Disease

Content Idea: Music is an effective therapy for patients with Alzheimers disease because it alters enhances memory, heightens arousal, and does not produce the undesirable side effects of medicines used for the disease

General purpose: To inform

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about the benefits of music therapy for people with Alzheimers disease

Outline:IntroductionI. Imagine remembering everything important in your life: your parents names, your siblings names, your loved ones birthdays, your favorite TV shows, and your favorite restaurants.II. Now, imagine slowly forgetting every one of those important parts of your life, leaving you with a blank slate that used to be your mind. This is Alzheimers disease.III. Generally speaking, Alzheimers disease is a disease in which patients exhibit a general, progressive decline in the brains ability to perform everyday tasks (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3164).A. The first symptom is typically impaired episodic memory (memory of specific events in ones life) (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3164).B. Another key symptoms are a change in personality and a loss in the sense of self (Ziv et al. 329).C. However, not all cognitive functions are affected, and some are affected to varying degrees (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3164).IV. Yet, even though this disease has multiple symptoms, it also comes with multiple treatments, and one particular treatment is music therapy, which, in general, is the exposure of patients to music (whether through playing or through listening).V. Music therapy is effective in treating Alzheimers disease because it enhances memory, heightens arousal, and does not produce the undesirable side effects of medicines used for the disease.BodyI. TRANSITION: One way that music therapy alleviates the symptoms of Alzheimers disease is by improving the core symptom of Alzheimers disease: memory loss.A. One way that music does this is by increasing hormone levels, which decrease during the progression of Alzheimers disease (Fukui, Arai, and Toyoshima 1).1. One important hormone involved in Alzheimers is estrogen, particularly for female patients, which prevents damage to the nerves in the brain, which is necessary in retaining memory (Fukui, Arai, and Toyoshima 1).2. Another important hormone, testosterone, acts in much the same way as estrogen to protect against memory loss (Fukui, Arai, and Toyoshima 1).B. Another way that music enhances memory is by stimulating a complex network of brain structures, thus establishing a robust concept of memory by solidifying it in more than one area of the brain (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3166).1. Stimuli accompanied by music and a sung recording may create a more robust network (particularly in terms of memory) than just spoken word in Alzheimers patients (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3166).2. Music provides a complex network of verbal information within the brain, thus allowing for more areas to retrieve information, particularly the recognition or recall of lyrics (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3166).II. TRANSITION: Another way that music therapy alleviates the symptoms of Alzheimers is by heightening arousal, which is a deficit that patients with this disease experience.A. One possible explanation may be that pleasant, upbeat songs (particularly childrens songs) enhance concentration as the songs are played (Simmons-Stern, Budson, and Ally 3166).B. Another possible explanation may be that patients might see patients as a meaningful activity, thus reducing apathy and heightening their arousal (Raglio et al. 161).C. Experimentally, background music played for patients with Alzheimers has been shown to decrease wandering behavior, thus demonstrating an increase in arousal (Ziv et al. 339).III. TRANSITION: Finally, another way that music therapy is effective in treating Alzheimers is that it is a cost-effective alternative to medicines, especially since medicines often come with several side effects and complications, which require more money to treat in addition to treating Alzheimers disease (Raglio et al. 158).A. For example, the drugs olanzapine, quetiapine, and risperidone are the main drugs used in the treatment of Alzheimers and have led to discontinuation of treatment with those drugs because the side effects were intolerable (Raglio et al. 158).B. With regard to atypical antipsychotics (drugs that are not usually used in the treatment of psychotic diseases like Alzheimers), these types of drugs are associated with serious cerebrovascular (the blood-brain system) and other serious psychological disabilities (such as the inability to move) (Raglio et al. 158).C. And, with regard to the healthy elderly, who are the primary patients with Alzheimers disease, music therapy can be a preventative measure against the disease, thus saving money involved in treating the disease, particularly in terms of medicines (Fukui, Arai, and Toyoshima 4).ConclusionI. In conclusion, although memory enhancement, heightened arousal, and cost-effectiveness are three benefits of music therapy as a treatment for Alzheimers disease, there are a multitude of other benefits of music therapyII. Music therapy not just for Alzheimers diseaseIII. In the future, hope to use music therapy as a treatment alternative for a host of other diseases

Works CitedFukui, Hajime, Arai Atsuko, and Kumiko Toyoshima. Efficacy of Music Therapy in Treatment for the Patients with Alzheimers Disease. International Journal of Alzheimers Disease 2012 (2012): 1-6. DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.Raglio, Alfredo, Giuseppe Bellelli, Daniela Traficante, Marta, Gianotti, Maria Chiara Ubezio, Daniele Villani, and Marco Trabucchi. Efficacy of Music Therapy in the Treatment of Behavioral and Psychiatric Symptoms of Dementia. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders 22.2 (2008): 158-162. Journals@Ovid. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.Simmons-stern, Nicholas, Andrew Budson, and Brandon Ally. Music as a Memory Enhancer in Patients with Alzheimers Disease. Neuropsychologia 48.10 (2010): 3164-3167. Elsevier SD Freedom Collection. Web. 24. Feb. 2014.Ziv, Naomi, Amit Granot, Sharon Hai, Ayelet Dassa, and Iris Haimov. The Effect of Background Stimulative Music on Behavior in Alzheimers Patients. Journal of Music Therapy 44.4 (2007): 329-343. Oxford University Press Journals Current. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

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