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The Conversation
The Conversation
Rosemary Golding, Senior Lecturer in Music, The Open University

Music and mental health: the parallels between Victorian asylum treatments and modern social prescribing

Dances and concerts were usually the only opportunity for patients to meet in a large group. K. Drake/Wellcome Collection, CC BY-NC

Music has a powerful effect on the listener. It is linked to better mental health, and it has been shown to alleviate loneliness, pain, anxiety and depression.

For this reason, it is increasingly being prescribed by doctors as a form of medicine. This practice – where patients are referred to various activities such as running groups, art classes and choirs – is known as social prescribing.

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