“We conclude that music interventions may have beneficial effects on anxiety, pain, fatigue and quality of life (QOL) in people with cancer,” concluded Jake Bradt, associate professor in Drexel University’s College of Nursing and Health Professions. “Furthermore, music may have a small positive effect on heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. Reduction of anxiety, fatigue, and pain are important outcomes for people with cancer, as they have an impact on health and overall QOL.”
A team of researchers led by Bradt looked into 30 studies and came to the conclusion that music interventions had several outcomes positively on the symptoms of cancer patients both, psychologically and physically. As per Dr.Jake, research on additional trials on published and ongoing studies up till January 2016 was conducted and comparison was made between studies in which music therapy or music medicine and standard treatment alone or standard care combined with other treatments or placebo.
Identification of 22 new studies was performed which makes the total number of studies as 52, where 3731 participants were identified. “Music therapy and music medicine interventions may have a beneficial effect on anxiety, pain, fatigue, heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure in people with cancer,” claimed Dr.Jake. However, the article also states that it is unclear what impact music interventions may have considering evidence for depression which is of a very low quality.
As per the report, music therapy but not music medicine interventions may improve patients’ quality of life. No evidence for improvement of mood, distress or physical functioning was found, keeping in mind the low number of trials which studied these outcomes. Also, no conclusion could be drawn about the effects of music interventions on immunologic functioning, coping, resilience or communication.
A cautionary note states that most of the trials were at a high risk of bias but no conflict of interests could be identified in the included studies.
Written by Abdullah Sultan Usmani
Sources:
www.google.com
