Music as medicine: Could doctors prescribe music to treat anxiety and other mental health issues?

It’s a common belief that music soothes the soul. But some researchers and healthcare companies say it can be used to heal the mind — and maybe the body.

Several popular apps claim to help relieve anxiety through music, meditations and mindfulness. A company in Los Angeles takes that idea further: It’s seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to prescribe music treatments for specific mental health conditions, such as generalized anxiety disorder.

A recent study out of UC Irvine found that listening mindfully to improvisational jazz was linked to a decrease in pain and anxiety for some patients.

Sean Young, lead author of the study, told LAist that just as doctors prescribe opioids for chronic pain, “you could imagine that prescribing something like jazz or certain sounds might be in the future of what we can do in helping patients with pain or other kinds of clinical, mental, behavioral health issues.”

Alpha brain waves and ‘restorative music’

Sona Labs, an L.A.-based company that bills itself as “music as medicine,” is seeking FDA approval for its music treatment so that mental health professionals can prescribe them for conditions like generalized anxiety disorder.

Sona’s founder, Neal Sarin, said music compositions created with the company’s proprietary technique have been shown in tests to increase alpha waves in listeners’ brains.

Alpha waves are a type of electrical activity in the brain that are typically present when a person is calm — like when they are meditating or daydreaming. There are five common types of brainwaves: gamma, beta, alpha, theta and delta, with gamma associated with high alertness and concentration.

Sarin, a musician and former music executive, said he gives musicians certain parameters, like keeping beats per minute below 65 and using soft tones, in order to produce music he said increases alpha brain wave activity.

The result is dulcet soundscapes with transitions that ebb and flow like ocean waves.

The concept came to him around 2015, Sarin said, when he was experimenting with his own musical compositions. His idea was to make music that could bring on the calming effects he’d experienced with his meditation practice, just by listening to it.

By 2019, he had composed roughly 10 minutes of serene music.

“You know, I was feeling kind of sedated after listening to it. But it was also having that effect on family and friends as well,” Sarin said.

Sarin developed a proprietary, 10-step composition process he said can consistently yield what he calls “restorative music” that increases alpha waves in the brain. He and his team built an app where users can listen to his specialized music.

The app uses artificial intelligence to recommend music to users, but all of the compositions are created by humans, Sarin said.

In 2022, the FDA approved Sona’s plans for clinical trials, and Sarin is trying to raise money to see that through, he said.

Does it work?

Dr. Robert Knight, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley, conducted a study at Sarin’s request to try to measure what was going on in the brain when people listened to Sona compositions.

Knight study used electroencephalography — a process in which electrodes attached to the scalp measure electrical activity in the brain.

The study showed that alpha brain waves were increased when a group of people listened to Sona music over a selection of pop music. The alpha brain waves were increased by 13% in the group listening to Sona music over the other group.

“It definitely worked,” Knight said.

He said there is some precedent for what might be called digital medicine, software and app-based interventions that aim to treat mental-health-related or other symptoms. He points to a San Francisco-based company that received FDA approval for a video game designed to treat ADHD symptoms in children.

“So you’re seeing this, I guess it could be ‘digital-ceuticals’ if you will. ‘Electro-ceuticals’ in some ways.’ ... So it’s not out of the question,” Knight said.

According to Knight, products like the ones Sona produces could meet a real need if they can show scientifically that the music is helpful for people with specific conditions, including anxiety.

“Which is very pervasive in the modern world and, in my experience, only getting more intense, anxiety in general,” Knight told LAist.

According to a report last year from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of American adults with anxiety symptoms saw a “significant increase” between 2019 and 2022, to 18.2%, from 15.6%.

Daniel Levitin — author of the book “I Heard There Was A Secret Chord: Music As Medicine” and a neuroscientist who lectures at UCLA — said research has shown that music can alter heart and breathing rate.

“There’s a lot of evidence that music — even when you control for all the other factors, you try to parcel out the placebo effect — music relieves anxiety, stress, muscle tension. It leads to better mood. It can relieve depression ... not every person and in every case,” Levitin said.

Still, Levitin said he’s skeptical of any person telling you a certain song will relax you. Or an app that’s one-size-fits-all.

The UC Irvine study found that mindful listening to improvisational jazz, like “Have You Met Miss Jones?” by the Oscar Peterson Trio, was linked with a decrease in pain and anxiety for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Young, lead author on the study, said that although the results of the study were clear, we don’t really know why the mindful jazz listening group had decreased pain and anxiety.

“There haven’t really been many studies prescribing certain types of sounds and testing that, or prescribing certain types of music,” Young told LAist.

The musician will see you now

Nailah Hunter, a Los Angeles-based harpist who has composed music for an app that aims to help people reduce anxiety.

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Ben Kalra

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Sarin said he’s worked with more than a dozen composers to produce music for Sona, including L.A.-based harpist Nailah Hunter.

Hunter said there’s been a lot of crossover between the music and wellness spaces in the last several years.

“Ever since COVID, it just kind of burst, and it’s because people need it,” Hunter said.

It’s not just Sona, companies like Calm offer a vast library of music intended for users to improve their wellbeing.

German-based Endel uses artificial intelligence to generate soundscapes to help users chill out. Spotify has playlists like “Stress Relief” and “Relax and Unwind.” And Angelenos have a wide array of local soundbaths and ambient music experiences they can attend on any given day.

Hunter said she wouldn’t mind living in a world in which someone dealing with anxiety is prescribed a musical experience.

“I think that’s beautiful. ... We are always kind of self-prescribing music. But it would feel nice to have it be respected and kind of upheld by the medical institution,” Hunter said.

“Because it does work.”