Conference paper
EFFECTS OF MUSIC ON SEIZURE FREQUENCY IN INSTITUTIONALIZED SUBJECTS WITH SEVERE/PROFOUND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY AND DRUG-RESISTANT EPILEPSY
Patrizia D’Alessandro
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy
Marta Giuglietti
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy
Antonella Baglioni
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy
Norma Verdolini
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy
Nicola Murgia
; Department of Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy
Massimo Piccirilli
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy; Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Perugia, Italy
Sandro Elisei
; Istituto Serafico, Assisi, Perugia, Italy
Abstract
Background: Approximately one-third of patients with epilepsy continue to experience seizures despite adequate therapy with
antiepileptic drugs. Drug-resistant epilepsy is even more frequent in subjects with intellectual disability. As a result, several nonpharmacological interventions have been proposed to improve quality of life in patients with intellectual disability and drug-resistant epilepsy. A number of studies have demonstrated that music can be effective at reducing seizures and epileptiform discharges. In particular, Mozart’s sonata for two pianos in D major, K448, has been shown to decrease interictal EEG discharges and recurrence of clinical seizures in patients with intellectual disability and drug-resistant epilepsy as well. The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of Mozart's music on seizure frequency in institutionalized epileptic subjects with profound/severe intellectual disability.
Subjects and methods: Twelve patients (10 males and 2 females) with a mean age of 21.6 years were randomly assigned to two groups in a cross-over design; they listened to Mozart K448 once a day for six months.
Results: A statistically significant difference was observed between the listening period and both baseline and control periods.
During the music period, none of the patients worsened in seizure frequency; one patient was seizure-free, five had a greater than 50% reduction in seizure frequency and the remaining showed minimal (N=2) or no difference (N=4). The average seizure reduction compared to the baseline was 20.5%. Our results are discussed in relation to data in the literature considering differences in protocol investigation.
Conclusions: Music may be considered a useful approach as add-on therapy in some subjects with profound intellectual
disability and drug-resistant epilepsy and can provide a new option for clinicians to consider, but further large sample, multicenter studies are needed to better understand the characteristics of responders and non-responders to this type of non-pharmacological intervention.
Keywords
drug-resistant epilepsy; Mozart effect; music; intellectual disability
Hrčak ID:
263729
URI
Publication date:
15.6.2017.
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