The efficacy of music interventions on pain in cancer patients undergoing therapeutic treatment

Despite chemotherapy and radiation therapy as being effective in the treatment of cancer, like other therapies, they can cause some side effects, which may vary in each individual. Sometimes these treatment sessions cause pain that may decrease with time. But in some people, permanent nerve damage happens, which can cause severe symptoms after treatment. The study focused on measuring the effect of two types of music therapy on pain in blood cancer patients. 180 young adult (age range of 20-40 years) patients (with an equal number of males and females)with blood cancer who were undergoing chemotherapy or radiation therapy, were equally assigned to three groups randomly viz. two intervention groups (i.e. either active or receptive music therapy) and a control group. Participants were evaluated by McGill pain questionnaire visual analogue scale. Scores were obtained before and after the music therapy. Twenty sessions of active or receptive music therapy(with each session of 15-30 minutes) were applied on intervention groups whereas the control group received only routine medical treatment sessions. Results indicated significant differences in reduction in scores of pain from pre-therapy to post-therapy scores for both intervention groups as compared to no intervention group. Analyses of Covariance applied to compare these three independent groups revealed that active music therapy had the greatest impact on the reduction of pain as compared to the receptive music therapy group. The study has great implications for pain reduction in the patients undergoing the cancer treatment.