Music Therapy as a Communication Tool: A Therapeutic Approach to Dementia Symptoms

Abstract

Music therapy has become, in the last decade, one of the most robust non-pharmacological interventions dedicated to people with dementia, especially in Alzheimer's disease, due to its ability to restore forms of communication in a context marked by severe language impairment. This paper examines the scientific literature published between 2020 and 2025, integrating data from meta-analyses, randomized clinical trials, qualitative studies, and mechanistic reviews, to clarify how music can function as a therapeutic communication tool. The results converge on the idea that the effectiveness of music therapy derives from the interaction between relatively conserved neurocognitive mechanisms in dementia, robust emotional reactions to musical stimuli, bodily synchronization, and a secure relational framework. Music interventions reduce anxiety, agitation, and depression, improve social connectivity, and allow the emergence of coherent nonverbal communication, even in the advanced stages of the disease. However, the literature highlights methodological limitations such as small samples, variability of protocols, and the lack of standardised tools for assessing communication. Future studies need to develop more rigorous methodologies capable of investigating music as a complex therapeutic language, not just as a global stimulus, and integrating the analysis of micro-sequential interactions and the quality of the therapeutic relationship. Overall, music therapy is emerging as an essential relational infrastructure, capable of rehumanizing the care of people with dementia, restoring the continuity of the self and the possibility of connection despite profound cognitive decline.tag.