For people with drug-resistant epilepsy, treatment options can seem few and far between. Over the past two decades, several studies have suggested that listening to music—specifically, Mozart’s K448, Sonata for Two Pianos—is associated with seizure reduction.
Most recently, a one-year study from the Krembil Brain Institute in Toronto followed 13 people with drug-resistant epilepsy. Results showed that three months of daily listening to Mozart K448, compared with listening to a “scrambled” K448 lacking the rhythmicity of the original, was associated with a 35% reduction in seizures.
The study saw no differences in effects between people with normal and abnormal MRI results. The group’s next steps include attempts to tease out the mechanism or mechanisms behind the effect.
