Persons with cognitive impairment as in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders have a progressive decline in their stress threshold. Agitation results when this stress threshold is exceeded. A proposed mid-range theory incorporates these elements to discuss the use of individualized music to alleviate agitation. Music may provide a method of communicating with this population even in advanced stages when the person is unable to understand verbal language and has decreased ability to interpret environmental stimuli. It is predicted that the presentation of music carefuUy selected for meaningfulness to the person during his or heryoungeryears wil stimulate memory for remote events, and elicitation of memories associated with positive feelings will have a soothing effect and will alleviate or decrease agitated behaviors. Results from a pilot study andpreliminaryfindingsfrom a study currently underway are provided as beginning efforts to support this mid-range theory. An individualized music intervention that flows from this mid-range theory is discussed.