MUSIC AND DRUGS
(Under construction)
This course, still under construction is perfectly adapted
to the Internet since each musical reference can be immediately illustrated
by the corresponding malady melody on your computer. The goal of this "show"
is to demonstrate that the interface between Music and Pharmacology is
less artificial than it could appear at first sight ; at the extreme, music
could adhere to one of the definitions of a drug, in the Greek meaning,
to pharmakon. Some examples (to be completed) will illustrate our thinking.
I - MUSIC AND THE
BRAIN
In Neurophysiology, music may be compared to stimuli
coming from the environment. These stimuli are processed by the central
nervous system (CNS). Different anatomic controls ...) [Ward et al 1987
; Harper et al 1968 ; mark 1975]. Recently it has been demonstrated by
magnetoencephalography (MEG) that well-trained cello players presented
a cortical synaptic organisation which was much more dense than in the
non musician one (learning induced neuroplasticity). Many drugs and substances
can modify the different phases of the processing of musical information
by the brain.
II - MUSIC AND
THERAPEUTICS
Musicotherapy is a reality, and, in that way, plays the
role of a remedy. If, in a normal human being, music revives emotions
and pleasure (see the course on the Pharmacology
of pleasure), then it could also be routinely used in therapeutics. The
most common uses of musicotherapy are in the following fields : anaesthesia,
paediatrics, psychiatry, autistic children and geriatrics. Frequently,
musicotherapy is associated with real drug therapy [Coetze et al 1996 ;
Keller 1995 ; Ambesh et al 1991 ; Gunther et al 1991 ; Schmidt et al 1976].
III - MUSIC AND
BEHAVIOUR
Any drug is open to modify creativity or the expression
of performance [Krippner 1985 ; Gates et al 1985 ; Slomka 1992 ; James
et al 1977]. Some drugs clearly modify music perception [Waskow et al 1970].
IV - MUSIC
AND PHARMACOVIGILANCE
- Music, by itself, may create unusual psychological
states (i.e. : trances induced by Brazilian music or during rave
parties ...).
- Music can be detrimental for some cognitive functions
(for example memory performance is disturbed when music is "co-administered"
during a learning period).
- Some rhythms modify autonomic functions in a non physiological
manner (heart rate, blood pressure ...) ; parallelly, and evidently, some
sound frequencies and amplitudes can affect the inner-ear cells (walkman
danger).
V - MUSIC
AND PHARMACOEPIDEMIOLOGY
Some music and melodies may be a reflection of a time
(see the song by a French singer, Jacques Dutronc,
with a succession or psychotropic quotations) and also of an epidemiology
problem ; this last point is, at best, illustrated by a blues, the Jake
Walk blues (Strash records, inc. Brooklyn, NY 11215) relating the peripheral
neuropathies induced by an adultered alcoholic beverage (tri-ortho-cresyl-phosphate)
at the time of the prohibition during the thirties, in the USA (quoted
in Allain et al 19 ). "Patients dragged their feet and slapped them down
in a pelicular, stereotypical pattern, which gave the illness its name
- The Jake leg, or the Jake Walk" (JP Morgan).