Music therapy may help cancer patients improve their mood and decrease anxiety. This is according to researchers who analyzed previous studies.
The studies before did not specify what kind of music will help cancer patients most. The options ranged from CDs during visits in the hospital, or even going to music therapists.
According to an expert in music therapy in Indiana, therapists can use music to help the patients be more relaxed during certain treatments and also think better thru tension.
Different interventions using music are used to address immediate pain symptoms and anxiety attacks, and also to help with long term concerns like improving communication with other members of the family.
The study involved experts looking into thirty studies done previously to look into the effects of music therapy and listening to music to around two thousand cancer patients.
Comparing the data in terms of heart rate, pain, anxiety, and mood, the patients who were also getting some music therapy were more favorable compared to those who just received the conventional cancer treatment.
The study though points out that it is hard to compare objectively the effects of music therapy to cancer patients suffering from depression and anxiety to those who received other treatments. It also recommended that the study must look into the kind of music that will benefit patients in their different stages of cancer and treatment.
Tags: anxiety in cancer, anxiety reliever, music therapy, music therapy for anxiety