Music is a powerful emotional tool that can be used as an effective coping mechanism, as "medicine." Musical interventions are used in many areas of health care and medical sciences to meet the physical, psychological, social, and emotional needs of individuals. This article provides a theoretical definition of the concept of music as medicine: The use of music as a non-pharmacological strategy for coping and healing, based on its therapeutic properties, using a modification of Walker and Avant's method to identify antecedents, attributes, consequences, and empirical referents. Music as a coping strategy involves the use of music intervention and is an example of an emotion-focused, adaptive, coping strategy. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of music as medicine for practice and research. Increased awareness of the concept of music as medicine as a strategy to manage stress offers an inexpensive non-pharmacological intervention to many organizations such as nursing care facilities, schools, and hospitals.
Keywords: anxiety; depression; music; pain; self-care; stress.
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