Effect of Music Therapy on Pain and Quality of Life among Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Abstract Background: Cancer is one of the ten leading cause of death in India. Cancer patients usually present with moderate to severe pain which results usually from the cancer itself or from their treatment .To counteract pain complementary therapies are used along with the medical treatment. The most common used in the clinical setting is Music therapy; which is found to have a positive effect on the physical and psychological response of the patients. Objectives: To find the effectiveness of Music therapy on Pain and Quality of life among Cancer survivors. Material and Method : A quasi experimental research design was adopted for the study. The data were collected using demographic proforma, Numerical Pain rating scale and McGill Quality of life Questionnaire. 50 subjects with moderate to severe pain were identified and were randomly allocated into experimental (25) and control group (25). Experimental groups (25) received Music therapy for 15-20 mins twice a day for a period of 5 days. The control group (25) received no intervention. Pain was assessed twice a day, before and after the intervention for 5 th th days and QoL was assessed on the 6th and 10th day for both the groups.. Results: Majority of the subjects19 (38%) were between the age groups of 41-50 years and most of them 29 (58%) were males. Among the females the most common cancer was breast 12 (24%) and among males it was lungs 10 (20%). Most of the subjects 23(46%) had stage –II cancer, and 28(56%) were on radiation therapy. With regard to treatment, majority 29(58%) were on treatment for a duration of 1-3 months. The study also revealed a significant difference in the level of pain after the music intervention (p<0.05) and a significant improvement in the Quality of life especially affecting the physical and psychological domain (p<0.05). No significant association was found between pain, QoL and selected demographic variables (p<0.05) Conclusion: Music therapy was found to be an effective complementary therapy in reducing the level of pain and improving the QoL of the cancer survivors.