Art as Medicine
摘要
Evidence is increasingly robust on the benefits of using the arts, particularly music, to promote health, prevent, and treat several diseases. Music listening or performance and other artistic interventions are powerful tools (both for patients and doctors) to engage multisensory and motor networks and induce structural and functional brain changes, leading to neuroplasticity. The neuromodulator effect of the arts, as facilitators of sensorimotor, emotional, and proprioceptive integration, promotes the recovery of multiple domains and improvement of pain, emotional status, behavioral cognitive changes, fatigue level, mobility, strength, coordination, dexterity, balance, walking endurance, gait parameters, language and speech, functionality, quality of life, self-esteem and the sense of well-being. It also promote healthier behaviors and social cohesion. Physicians also may benefit from art performing. In surgery, listening to music seems to have a calming and relaxing effect, enhancing the accuracy of the surgical task performance. The practice of a musical instrument by physicians also seems to improve skills such as manual dexterity, neuromotor coordination, and the ability to concentrate. Finally, being a doctor is also a form of art: the art of caring for others. Art fosters creativity and enhances our ability, as doctors, to be empathic, to listen, understand, communicate, and express ourselves, promoting a rich and healthy doctor-patient relationship and person-centered care.