Calming Christmas songs 'being used as medicine' in music trial at local care home

Hull-based MediMusic, a tech company that has developed a technology that uses AI to select and prescribe music as medicine to reduce pain and anxiety, has created a playlist of relaxing Christmas songs for people living with dementia.

It’s being piloted in a care home for the first time to help the 29 residents after NHS trials found it reduced the heartrate in anxious dementia patients by 25 per cent.

It’s also being made available free of charge to all families and care facilities to use.

The first care home to trial the MediMusic and the Christmas Dementia playlist is Orchard Court Care Home in Brigg in North Lincolnshire.

Songs to make the playlist are Rocking Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee; Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift; When a Child is Born by Johnny Mathis; Driving Home for Christmas by Chris Rea and Santa Baby performed by Kylie Minogue.

Also on the list are Thank God It’s Christmas by Queen; Have Yourself a Merry Little Xmas by Michael Bublé and Holy Night by Nat King Cole.

With an estimated 940,000 people living with dementia and around 540,000 carers in the UK, the onset of shorter winter days exacerbates ‘sundowning’ - a collection of symptoms such as anger, aggression and irritation, which tend to occur as the sun goes down and into the night.

MediMusic, which is also now being supported by the legendary Abbey Road Studios, hopes its technology could revolutionise the treatment of dementia, but also be used for pre/post operation, chronic pain and dentistry, through to improving motor response as part of a physical rehabilitation programme.

The company, which recently won The Yorkshire Post and Hull Daily Mail’s Start-Up of the Year awards, chose the most relaxing and stress-free Christmas songs to help patients at risk of sundowning and in addition to the care home trial, have created a Spotify playlist open to all users.

Gary Jones, CEO and co-founder of MediMusic and a former music industry executive developed the technology after trying to help the mother of a family friend who was living with dementia.

He said: “She went from being a very strong-minded farmer's wife looking after the cattle on a farm, to someone who had vascular dementia after going into hospital from breaking a hip.

“The only time she appeared to be happy was when music was playing. So I started building playlists using an algorithm I designed that selected the most suitable and calming music. And it worked.

“We’ve managed to digitally fingerprint the DNA of music so we can deliver the right songs as medicine to ease anxiety and stress. You could say it’s a musical pharmaceutical.

“Sundowning is a huge issue for people living with dementia as it makes them much more anxious. Darker nights in winter can be very long and many family carers find their loved one’s behaviour more difficult to deal with.

“So we used MediMusic to search all the well-known Christmas songs that have the ability to reduce stress in people living with dementia.

“Using MediMusic could also reduce the use of drugs in treating anxiety and pain in patients by up to a quarter, thereby saving money for the NHS and care homes.

“Dispensing music as medicine is going to revolutionise the treatment of people in pain and stress. We hope our Dementia Christmas Playlist will bring some comfort and joy to all families who have to live with dementia.”

Orchard Court Care Home Manager, Tracy Mussett, who are using the Christmas dementia playlist said: “Sundowning is something we see every day in our residents living with dementia.

“It starts towards the end of the day when we see an increase in anxiety, confusion and unsettled behaviour that can continue long into the night. It’s particularly bad in winter as the nights draw in faster.

“We know how beneficial playing music in the home is to residents’ wellbeing. It can prompt memories of happier times and make them feel at ease.

“That’s why we are very excited to be trialling MediMusic in our home to measure the impact of music dispensed as medicine.

“We’ve started playing their Christmas playlist to our residents and we’ve visibly seen it make a real difference to them.”

Dr Jacqueline Twamley, Academic Research and Innovation Manager at the Centre for Health Research & Innovation at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which has been trialling MediMusic on dementia patients, said:

“Prescribing music as medicine could revolutionise the treatment of dementia. We know one of the accepted tips to alleviate the symptoms of sundowning is to get into a routine and listen to calming music.

“We ran a trial on 25 patients suffering from dementia and the results were really impressive. We saw a reduction in pre/post heart rate of 25%. At the end of the playlist, agitation did not resume for about an hour afterwards.

“We hope this Christmas playlist will help families and their loved ones living with dementia have a peaceful festive period.

“MediMusic’s link up with Abbey Road Red will also help us expand our trials to look into using this innovation for other conditions such as chronic back pain.”

MediMusic has just joined Abbey Road Studio’s music tech incubation programme, Abbey Road Red to continue expanding the technology.

Karim Fanous, Innovation Manager, Abbey Road Red added: “Studies have long shown a direct correlation between music and anxiety or stress reduction, as well as the potential for pain reduction. But implementing this research into effective dispensation in a medical context remains a big challenge.

“In MediMusic we believe we’ve found a music tech start-up which can succeed, supported by early traction in clinical trials, and a founder with anticipative vision who started this journey seven years ago. It’s a very special opportunity to play our part at Red.”

MediMusic has recently secured £1.2m in funding that includes investment from Finance Yorkshire, the University of Hull, Sauce Consultants Limited and private investors.