Published Paper Details:

Music is a very effective means of boosting mood and reducing stress and anxiety. Music therapy helps in improving wellbeing and mental health. According to the population census, the geriatric population is nearly 149 million in India in 2023, among which one in five suffers from mental health concerns where 75% of them have chronic stress, 50% insomnia symptoms and more than one in ten older adults have major depression. Music therapy is found to be effective in improving mental health and sleep quality among the elderly. The present study aims at evaluating and drawing a comparison between the effect of music therapy on psychological distress and depression among geriatric individuals of West Bengal. 80 geriatric individuals residing in residence and old age home of West Bengal were assessed for the study using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to measure psychological distress and depression respectively. The major findings of the study reveal that music therapy has an impact on geriatric population. Music therapy have been found to be effective in reducing psychological distress and depression among the participants.