Study of Stroke Patients Reveal Singing Boosts Communication and Quality of Life

Singing notably improved strokes patients' mood, social functioning, and quality of life, study finds. (Shutterstock)

A study by the University of Helsinki has found that singing enhances stroke patients’ communication and language production, makes them more social and reduces the burden on caregivers.

Published in Brain Communications on Dec. 27, 2022, the research included 54 stroke patients who were given weekly group-based singing training for four months.

“Our study utilised a wide variety of singing elements, such as choral singing, melodic intonation therapy, and tablet-assisted singing training,” doctoral researcher Anni Pitkäniemi said.

Led by trained music therapists and choir conductors, melodic intonation therapy aims to help patients gradually produce speech by using melody and rhythm to progress from singing towards speaking.

At the five-month and nine months marks, the patients were evaluated on communication and speech production, mood, social functioning, and quality of life, whereas the caregivers were evaluated on their burden of care.

The researchers found that singing improved the patients’ daily communication and speech production compared to standard care, even during the chronic phase of stroke.

Singing-based group rehabilitation was found to improve social activity and speech production. (Courtesy of Encore Creativity for Older Adults)

“Importantly, the positive effects on both communication ability and responsive speech were maintained five months after the cessation of the intervention, which indicates that the verbal benefits induced by the intervention were robust and durable,” the authors wrote.

It also notably decreased the burden experienced among the caregivers.

“Our study is the first where caregivers participated in rehabilitation, and their psychological well-being was evaluated,” lead author and postdoctoral researcher Sini-Tuuli Siponkoski said.

“In addition to training in speech production, group-based rehabilitation provides an excellent opportunity for peer support both for the patients and their families.”

Around 40 percent of stroke survivors experience aphasia, difficulty in comprehending or producing spoken or written language caused by damage to specific brain regions, according to the authors.

It is a highly debilitating condition that impairs the ability to communicate, causing social isolation and decreasing emotional well-being.

Choirs Shouldn’t Have Been Banned During COVID, Study Says

Meanwhile, policymakers around the world banned choral singing during the COVID-19 pandemic after misinterpreting a high-profile outbreak, a study has found.

The study said that governments took a wrongful interpretation of the event in Washington State in March 2020, where 53 were diagnosed with COVID-19 within a few weeks, and used it as justification to ban choral singing and shut down churches.

Many of the choral members apparently had already been infected before attending the practice.

“It seems more consistent with the available data to conclude that there were multiple infectious individuals at the rehearsal and that they acquired the infection elsewhere,” the researchers said.

“The mean incubation period is simply too short for it to be plausible that much, if any, infection occurred at the rehearsal.”

“The Skagit County Choir outbreak does not provide authority for measures to restrict singing or to require face covering or physical distancing during indoor gatherings at a relatively low density with no special ventilation measures,” they concluded.