Abstract CN35
Background
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world, accounting for 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Cancer patients receiving chemotherapy must endure the side effects as well as to adapt to the changes and impact that the disease and treatments have on their physical and psychological well-being. Therefore, our study to examine the effects of music therapy on anxiety and depression in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy can help to develop best practices for oncology nursing care.
Methods
This study is a double-blind, randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of music therapy in reducing anxiety and depression experienced by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Patients with breast cancer were randomly assigned to a music therapy group or control group. The music therapy group was administered 24-week music therapy involving five 30-minute sessions per week. The outcome indicators were anxiety and depression. A generalized estimating equation was employed to compare the effects after 6, 12, and 24 weeks of intervention between the two groups.
Results
A total of 60 patients were recruited and randomly assigned to the music therapy and control groups (30 each). For the experimental group, the adoption of music therapy displayed an interaction effect on anxiety (p < .05). An increase in music therapy time exhibited a better effect on alleviating the patients’ anxiety at 6 weeks (β=-5.64, p = 0.007), 12 weeks (β=-7.01, p = 0.001) and 24 weeks (β=-9.57, p = 0.001). However, no significant differences were observed in the effect of music therapy on depression (p > .05).
Conclusions
Our study found that music therapy helped to reduce anxiety after 6, 12, and 24 weeks. We recommend the use of music therapy as an intervention to improve symptoms of anxiety for breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The author.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
The author has declared no conflicts of interest.