Using music instead of medication to calm agitated patients

Mark Wiener, MD (left), and Mark Wiener, MD (left), and Trevor Scudamore, MD Trevor Scudamore, MD (photo by Jim Howe) (photo by Jim Howe) Music has the ability to influence the mood of listeners, but is it powerful enough to calm someone who is agitated? Some doctors in the psychiatry residency program at Upstate conducted a project that allowed patients in the psychiatric unit to listen to music as an alternative to medications when they became agitated. Trevor Scudamore, MD, and Mark Wiener, MD, explain that fewer medications were used when music was available, and patients who opted for music stayed in the hospital for fewer days. Music has the ability to influence the mood of listeners, but is it powerful enough to calm someone who is agitated? Some doctors in the psychiatry residency program at Upstate conducted a project that allowed patients in the psychiatric unit to listen to music as an alternative to medications when they became agitated. Trevor Scudamore, MD, and Mark Wiener, MD, explain that fewer medications were used when music was available, and patients who opted for music stayed in the hospital for fewer days. Click here Click here to read more about their work. to read more about their work.