Music Therapy: A Noninvasive Treatment to Reduce Anxiety and Pain of Colorectal Cancer Patients—A Systemic Literature Review

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Music interventions have been used for patients with cancer to meet their psychological, physical, social, and spiritual needs. This review identified the efficacy of music therapy among adult patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). Materials and Methods: We searched the PubMed/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Cochrane Library databases. Only randomized controlled studies reported in English of patients with CRC were included. Two reviewers independently extracted data on patients and intervention measurements. The main outcomes included pain, anxiety, quality of life, mood, nausea, vomiting, vital signs. Results: A total of 147 articles were identified from the search. A total of 10 studies were included in the review. Nine out of the ten studies (90%) showed statistically and clinically significant improvements across the outcome variables. Only one study (10%) found no significant positive effect from music therapy in any of the measured outcomes. Among the seven studies measuring pain as an outcome, four studies (57%) demonstrated that music therapy reduced pain. Three studies (75%) showed that MT reduced anxiety. Conclusions: This systemic review indicates that music therapy might help reduce pain and anxiety for cancer patients, including those with colorectal cancer, who are receiving treatment in palliative care, inpatient care and outpatient care settings.

The use of cannabinoids and alternative therapies in chronic pain management: a narrative review

“…The mechanism behind music therapy effectiveness may be explained by the descending pain modulatory system (DPMS) [52,53], which can alter pain perception. By evoking an emotional response, music stimulates the central nervous system to down-regulate stress, anxiety and pain via the endocrine, autonomous and immune systems [54,55]. Rhythm creates brain waves modulating the autonomous nervous system to lower heart rate, respiratory rate and both, systolic and diastolic pressure [54], to relax muscles [56], which the patient interprets as anxiety relief and fatigue reduction [57].…”

“…A meta-analysis summarized the outcomes of different studies comparing both methods and concluded that music therapy tends to be more engaging and better at changing a patient's pain perception, and music medicine allows the administration of lower dosages of analgesics and normalizes vital parameters such as heart rate, respiration rate and blood pressure [58]. Despite the varying strengths of each method, there was no statistically significant difference in effectiveness between music medicine and music therapy in pain reduction [55,58].…”

“…The addition of music therapy to pharmacological methods of pain management is promising, enabling it to reduce pain, alleviate anxiety and improve sleep quality and overall quality of life [55,60]. The main issue is heterogeneity between studies reporting on its use -each study has its own music therapy regimen.…”

Nurse-Implemented Music Therapy to Reduce Anxiety in Community-Dwelling Individuals with Severe Mental Illness: A Pilot Study

“…Practically, all these studies report a positive effect of music therapy, with different levels of influence depending on the targeted population. In the same vein, various meta-reviews [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] point out that music therapy affects patients' outcomes, and can be considered a non-pharmacological instrument to reduce anxiety and stress.…”

The psychophysiology of music-based interventions and the experience of pain

“…Despite these many differences in study design, significant beneficial effects of exposure to music on the experience of pain have consistently been documented in adults, neonates and children (e.g., Klassen et al, 2008;van der Heijden et al, 2015;Johnson et al, 2021;Ting et al, 2022), and across a range of acute and chronic conditions (Garza-Villareal et al, 2017). For example in childbirth (e.g., Simavli et al, 2014;Maleki and Youseflu, 2023), dysmenorrhea (Martin-Saavedra and Ruiz-Sternberg, 2018), laparoscopy (Choi et al, 2023), orthopaedics (Lin et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2020), cancer (Chow et al, 2023;Huang and Huang, 2023), fibromyalgia (Guétin et al, 2012;Usui et al, 2020), dermatology (Riew et al, 2023) and pre-and postoperative care during cardiovascular (Voss et al, 2004;Nilsson, 2009;Wang et al, 2020;Chandrababu et al, 2021;Kakar et al, 2021) or abdominal surgery (e.g., Good et al, 2005;Dale, 2021). There is evidence of music providing pain relief in patients being treated for burns (Whitehead-Pleaux et al, 2007;Hsu et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2021), and for patients in emergency departments or intensive care units (Richard-Lalonde et al, 2020;See et al, 2023;Vijay and Hauser, 2023).…”