Listening to Mozart’s musical pieces on a daily basis might be effective enough to reduce seizure frequency among people with epilepsy, according to Canadian researchers.
The study, released in the journal Epilepsia Open, is distinct from past research studies over the last two decades testing out the effects of Mozart with individuals suffering from epilepsy.
“In this study, we compared the effect on seizure frequency of daily listening to either Mozart K.448 or a spectrally similar, yet non‐rhythmic control piece,” the co-authors detailed in the findings.
“We hypothesized that there would be no difference in seizure counts when participants listened to Mozart K.448 vs when they listened to the control piece.”
As part of their study, a number of participants were given musical pieces from Mozart to listen to on a daily basis for three months. “Each participant was exposed to both three months of daily listening to the first six minutes of Sonata for two pianos in D major by Mozart and three months of daily listening to phase‐scrambled version,” the findings state.
“There was a three‐month baseline and a three‐month follow‐up period before and after the six‐month listening period, respectively.”
The results indicated that listening to the first movement of Mozart K.448 on a daily basis was linked to a reduction in seizure frequency among the adult participants suffering from epilepsy.
As a result, the findings suggest that daily listening of Mozart might be a therapeutic option for lessening the frequency of seizures, but more research on this subject is needed.
“Like all research, ours raises a lot of questions that we are excited to continue to answer with further research and support from the epilepsy community,” said Taufik Valiante, the study’s senior author.
