The influence of personal message with music on anxiety and side effects associated with chemotherapy

Abstract

The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate the benefits of a message from a patient's physician audiotaped over music on reducing anxiety and side effects of patients receiving chemotherapy. A convenience sample of 97 adult patients receiving chemotherapy for the first time was assigned to either an experimental or control group. Before beginning the first chemotherapy treatment, all subjects completed a demographic questionnaire and the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory (SSAI). Participants in the experimental group (n = 47) received taped music and a message from their physicians during the next four chemotherapy treatments. Participants in the control group (n = 50) received no intervention from the researchers and underwent their next four chemotherapy treatments as prescribed. After the fourth chemotherapy treatment, the SSAI and a side-effects self-assessment evaluation were completed by all subjects. A paired one-tailed t test found a significant difference between pre- and postintervention scores on the state anxiety scale (p < 0.001). In addition, anxiety remained the same over time in the control group. There was no significant difference in the severity of side effects experienced between control and experimental groups. These preliminary findings indicate that a simple and cost-effective intervention can decrease a patient's anxiety when receiving chemotherapy.

The clinical effects of music therapy in palliative medicine

“…Music has been used therapeutically in hospice [8,11,10], in palliative care [5, 14-19, 24, 25], while receiving radiation therapy [27], during chemotherapy [17,23,[27][28][29], and undergoing medical procedures (such as port placement/removal or tissue biopsy) [12,20]. Music has been used in symptom management such as for pain [2, 10-14, 16, 30, 34] and anxiety [1,2,11,12,14,16,23,27,30] and has been associated with improved quality of life [5,9] and spiritual healing [14,19,21,25,30].…”

“…Quantitative trials measuring the benefits of music therapy are less common. In reviewing the literature, only 15 studies [1,3,4,6,7,9,10,12,20,23,24,[27][28][29][30] included objective measurement of music therapy effectiveness with cancer patients. Therefore, we have sought to add this to the quantitative literature in this study.…”

Feasibility, physical capacity, and health benefits of a multidimensional exercise program for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy

“…These interventions have focused on muscle relaxation as well as on breathing exercise [31,33,55,69] with the belief that relaxation can prevent side effects and treatment-related anxiety [6,17,43,45,65]. Furthermore, relaxation can be seen as a means of achieving psychological and psychosocial goals (coping, counteracting stress, depression and anxiety) [6,14,17,55,63,65]. Similarly, sports science and psychology have shown that training in body awareness can be used by athletes to release tension and to control anxiety [53,66].…”

Klangmeditation in der onkologischen Rehabilitation: Pilotstudie zu einer rezeptiven Gruppenmusiktherapie mit dem Monochord

“…Quantitative Studien untersuchten unter anderem die unterstützende Wirkung rezeptiver Musik bei krankheitsbedingten Einschlafstörungen [13] und die Adjuvanz der medizinischen Therapie chronischer Krebsschmerzen [14][15][16]. Einige Studien [17,18] fanden einen positiven Einfluss von Musik auf Ängste und depressive Gestimmtheit während der Verabreichung einer Chemotherapie [3]. Zur Klangwirkung und Verwendung des Monochords in der Musiktherapie finden sich vornehmlich im deutschsprachigen Raum Veröffentlichungen [19,20].…”