How was Mozart's Health?

Recently one of my clients/patients asked me about Mozart's health. What an interesting question! After all that's been in the news about how Mozart's music can do all kinds of wonderful things, we come back to Mozart's own physical and mental health. Some of the things he is purported to have suffered from include:

depression
mania
addictions (both sex and spending)
narsicism (understandable!)
poor overall physical health (Thus his death at age 36!)
insomnia

One might ask, why didn't the music he was writing help him? Of course that's not an easy question...already, volumes have been written about it. One of his over-riding problems was poverty! He lived in cold, drafty quarters and often spent th money he earned with commissions on more velvet clothes, powdered wigs and fun out on the town! At least that's what "Amadeus" seems to be protraying.

Mozart was one of the greatest musical geniuses that ever lived. Today, no one would deny that. It's too bad he couldn't have benefited from the "Mozart Effect" himself!

Dr. Mozart: Mozart Comes to the Surgery Suite

The operating room of a hospital is a highly stressful place. Surgeons and assistants have to be extremely attentive, moving quickly but carefully. Playing music during surgeries has been shown to relax the staff and the patients. Some of the benefits that extend to the recovery room are lower heart rate, blood pressure and reduced need for pain medication.
Dr. Claudius Conrad, now a senior surgical resident at Harvard Medical School, suggests music can go even further. He’s published a paper suggesting that music can stimulate a 50 percent jump in pituitary growth hormone. The hormone is associated with stress but, paradoxically, can help exert healing. Dr. Conrad is also a classically-trained pianist with a doctorate in music theory.
Also, the study of music therapy has evolved in the United States for the past half a century, and there’s growing evidence that music is as good for the body as it is for the soul.