Singing helps patient to speak after 15 years


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Mumbai Mirror

Mumbai: Patients who lose the ability to speak after suffering a stroke may be able to regain their speech through song therapy. Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) can help stroke patients who may have suffered damage to the brain’s left hemisphere, responsible for speech processing, if the right hemisphere, associated with musical ability, is undamaged.

 

Antop Hill resident Mohan Shamim, 61, suffered a stroke 15 years ago that affected a part of his brain’s left hemisphere, leaving him unable to speak. But now, Shamim is learning to speak again through MIT.

 

Shamim’s banker wife Pushpanjali consulted various doctors and speech therapist, but nothing helped until two months ago, when the couple met senior neurologist Dr Shirish Hastak, group director, Neurology and Stroke Services, Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai Central. Hastak spoke to them at length and realised that not only did Shamim retain the ability to sing, he did not slur his words while singing. The doctor, who was already treating two other stroke patients through MIT, ran a few tests and concluded that Shamim was a good candidate for the treatment.

For Shamim, who used to work with Doordarshan as a programme coordinator on 400-plus episodes of the hit show ‘Geet Gaata Chal’, life changed completely after the stroke, Pushpanjali said. “He was full of life and he used to talk so much, I used to request my husband to shut his mouth for 10 minutes. But after the stroke, things completely changed and he struggled to speak. He wants to express so many things to me but he is unable to,” she said.

 

“Initially he could only hum, but soon he started singing. One day he sang, ‘Chaudhvi ka chaand ho, ya aftab ho,’ for me. I was surprised, because he had such difficulty pronouncing words properly while speaking. MIT showed that song therapy could help my husband speak.”

 

“In Shamim’s case, this therapy will definitely work because although he struggles a lot when he talks, he has no trouble singing. He pronounces every word in the song so clearly, no one can realise that he has suffered from a stroke. The right side of his brain works at 80 per cent of its capacity, helping him sing,” Dr Hastak said.

 

Shamim is now trying to speak and communicate with his wife through song. “He laughs when I ask him to ‘speak’ through singing,” she said.

 

“The speech therapist taps Shamim’s left hand (which is controlled by the right brain), and this tapping engages the motor nerves needed to produce speech in the patient’s mouth and throat, bridging the gap between singing and speaking,” Dr Hastak said.

 

The continued practice stimulates brain activity in the right hemisphere and can help increase the number of words a patient can speak, Dr Hastak said.

 

Dr Hastak feels MIT never caught on much, perhaps because many patients aren’t comfortable singing to communicate. And earlier, science wasn’t as advanced as it is today to be able to identify the actual changes in the brain that result from the therapy.

 

“This innovative therapy is available at various centres in the city. It’s just that patients may either be unaware of it, or may fear that the therapy won’t work. Before Shamim, I put two young patients in their 30s on MIT, and while one showed improvement, the other felt it wasn’t working for him. Also, in stroke cases, the patient’s support system plays an important role; in Shamim’s case, his wife encourages him to sing to communicate with her. She also sings with him. We ask patients’ families to try out karaoke, which can spark an interest in singing during the therapy,” he said. “The therapy needs at least 15 sessions to show results.”

 

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