Listening Mozart music can help epilepsy?

A new comprehensive analysis has confirmed that listening to Mozart's piano music can reduce the frequency of epilepsy attacks. The results of this meta-analysis may overturn current skepticism about the Mozart's effect.

The idea that listening to Mozart may have beneficial effects on mental health arose from early findings in the 1990s. There have been several studies since, but many involved small numbers of people, or have been of variable quality, leading to mixed evidence overall. This has meant that the 'Mozart Effect' has been treated with some skepticism by many clinicians.

Now two Italian Researchers, Dr. Gianluca Sesso and Dr. Federico Sicca from the University of Pisa have conducted a systematic review of works related to the effect of Mozart's music on epilepsy.

Working according to accepted standard methods for analyzing clinical treatment, they looked at 147 published research articles, which they then evaluated according to such things are relevance and quality of the research. This allowed them to select 12 pieces of research which they gathered into 9 separate groups, representing the best available science on the effect of Mozart's music on epilepsy.

They found that listening to Mozart, especially on a daily basis, led to a significant reduction in epileptic seizures, and also to a reduced frequency of abnormal brain activities in epileptic patients (called interictal epileptiform discharges). These effects occurred after a single listening session and were maintained after a prolonged period of treatment.

Epilepsy is surprisingly common, affecting just under 1 person in a hundred worldwide. This means that it has significant social and personal costs. Mostly it's treated by drugs, but these drugs don't work in around 30% of patients, so we need to be open to other therapies: the important thing is that these therapies can be tested and shown to work.