Music Therapy

Music as therapy has been used since ancient times. It emerged as a formal discipline in the United States in the late 1940s. Currently, there are over 5,000 music therapists working in clinical settings throughout the country. Patients listen to or perform music under the guidance of a professionally trained music therapist. Music can promote relaxation and provide distraction from pain. It has been used to reduce postoperative pain ⁽¹³⁾ and to help alleviate anxiety and stress ^{(1) (2)}. Preliminary data also suggest that music may help in improving social and emotional aspects in patients with Alzheimer's disease ^{(3) (4) (5)} and improved quality of life in patients with dementia ⁽⁶⁾ and stroke ⁽⁷⁾.

Music therapy may also help alleviate symptoms associated with cancer and its treatments. In one study, music reduced mood disturbance in cancer patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation, a procedure known to cause significant psychological distress ⁽¹⁰⁾. Other data indicate that music alleviates pain ⁽¹⁵⁾ and anxiety in breast cancer patients ⁽¹⁴⁾, in those receiving chemotherapy ⁽¹⁶⁾ and radiation therapy ⁽¹¹⁾, and improves the quality of life in people with terminal cancer ⁽¹²⁾. Music also reduces pain and anxiety, and increases comfort in hospitalized children with cancer ^{(9) (17)}. Women undergoing colposcopy reported reduced anxiety and pain perception after listening to slow-rhythm music ⁽⁸⁾.
Conclusions from systematic reviews, however, question the clinical significance of music therapy for treating pain ⁽¹⁸⁾, and also point to the poor methodology in several music therapy trials ⁽¹⁹⁾.  

Because music therapy is noninvasive and free of side effects, it is being integrated into the standard care in major cancer hospitals to help relieve pain and physical and psychological discomfort.