Case Study: Didjeridu Relieves Arthritis Pain
Dave Knott

I have been working in a 35 bed skilled nursing facility for people with AIDS, cancer and other life threatening illnesses and injuries as the "Music Therapist in Residence" (Board-Certified).. I've been keeping track of my work with residents via a documentation system (note taking and charting) but have found my journal to be a great source for helping me to develop new approaches AND formulating ways of describing methodology to the medical staff. I wanted to share this particular little case study with you all because it is an incredibly clear example of the power of music in directly benefiting a resident.

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Entering the resident's room, I soon noticed her discomfort. The way she was laying in bed, statements she made and the tone in her voice all suggested she was suffering from a great deal of pain. She said that it had been hurting all day and she couldn't get any relief from the medication available.

I told her about my didjeridu mentor and how he sometimes gives what he calls "Sound Massage Parlors" and offers to play his didj directly onto people's bodies and that some people report feeling better after having this treatment. I then offered to play into her arm using my trusty PVC didjeridu (conveniently kept on location in the Art & Music Room). She quickly accepted my offer stating, "I'll try anything."

I returned with the didj. It emits a low, rumbling D when played with the circular breathing technique. I explained to her how the instrument was played and that I would play it directly into her arm in the area that was causing her pain. I also offered that at any time she felt uncomfortable she could motion to me and I would stop.

I began playing with the didj pointed toward the floor, cycling my breath until I felt a strong, well-supported tone flowing from my lips and out the tube. I slowly brought the didj up and to her arm where I gingerly moved it around the area she had described as hurting the most and then travelled up her arm to her shoulder where she had also described feeling pain. Taking my time, I made small circular motions back down her arm and then played a short series of full breaths from her shoulder down her arm and out. This actually playing time of this directed music intervention lasted between 3 & 5 minutes.

I remember, as I was preparing my tone, a thought came to me about the effectiveness of music therapy interventions coming from the intention of the therapist to provide a therapeutic effect. And also, I imagined my breath becoming tone through the didjeridu and resonating into her arm.. I imagined this breath tone pushing the arthritis out of her arm.

After I stopped playing, she looked at me somewhat quizzically and said that her arm was feeling a lot better. I asked her to tell me on a scale of 1 - 10 where her pain was. She said it felt like about a 2. I then asked her what it felt like when I first came into her room. She said it was a 7 or more. She was curious of the instrument, how I played it, where I got it, the history of the instrument, ... During our little conversation she spontaneously put her right arm in the air and moved it around, looking at it and then looking at me and saying, "I don't think I feel any pain in my arm at all." She spoke about feeling the vibrations in her arm as if it were massaging her arm and that the sound of the instrument made her feel like she was meditating. She also said that she could probably fall off to sleep just then, "That thing made my eyelids so heavy."

I wanted to know the lasting effect of this intervention so I checked back with her 90 minutes later. She was speaking on the phone in a what seemed like a cheerful tone. I noticed she was holding the phone with her right hand. I interrupted briefly and asked her how her arm was doing. She waved it in the air at me and stated, "It feels great, thank you."

An illustration of another music therapy technique: vibrational medicine.