Music to soothe troubled
Wednesday August 10th, 2011
Cancer patients may benefit from listening to music or having music therapy sessions, researchers say today.
Recorded
music and the work of trained music therapists can both help to reduce
the anxiety caused by the disease, according to the study.
A Cochrane review covered 30 trials involving 1,891 patients. Of these, 13 were trials of music therapy and the others involved listening to pre-recorded music.
Although the studies varied in how long and how often patients participated in music sessions or listened to music, it seemed to "reduce anxiety considerably based on clinical anxiety scores", compared with standard treatment. It also appeared to improve quality of life.
The size of the benefit also varied between studies, and some found an improvement in pain scores and small improvements in heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. None found that music could alleviate depression.
Dr Joke Bradt of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA, says that music and music therapy are used in a wide range of clinical settings. As well as listening to pre-recorded music, music therapists are often used to engage patients in the musical experience with the aim of improving psychological and physical well-being.
"The evidence suggests that music interventions may be useful as a complementary treatment to people with cancer," Dr Bradt said.
"Music interventions provided by trained music therapists as well as listening to pre-recorded music both have shown positive outcomes in this review, but at this time there is not enough evidence to determine if one intervention is more effective than the other."
However, he pointed out that that a true comparison is not possible, as patients cannot be "blinded" to having this intervention or not.
He added that further trials "could help increase certainty in the findings and improve understanding of music's impact on distress and body image".
Bradt, J. et al. Music interventions for improving psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2011, Issue 8.
Tags: Alternative Therapy | Cancer | Mental Health | North America
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