Music therapy can reduce pain and anxiety in people with cancer and sickle cell disease

A study from Connor Whole Health found that cancer patients treated at academic cancer centers and people with sickle cell disease (SCD) reported clinically significant reductions in pain and anxiety
.
In addition, patients with SCD who received music therapy reported significantly higher pain and anxiety at baseline than patients
with blood and/or oncological diseases excluding SCD.
The results of this study were recently published in the journal Integrative Cancer Therapeutics, a leading journal
focused on understanding the science of integrative cancer treatment.

In this retrospective study, conducted between January 2017 and July 2020, music therapists at UH Connor Whole Health delivered 4,002 music treatments to 1,152 patients out of 2,400 patients at UH Seidman Cancer Center, making this the largest real-world investigation of the real-world
effectiveness of music therapy in hematology and oncology to date 。 This research builds on the history of groundbreaking music therapy research funded by the Kulas Foundation, the leading foundation in the United States for funding music therapy scientific research, which investigates the efficacy of
music therapy in palliative care, surgery, and sickle cell disease.

The music therapy program offered by Seidman Cancer Center provides a unique and effective means of symptom management for patients and their families throughout the cancer process
.
In particular, music therapy services are fully integrated in both inpatient and outpatient wards, providing ongoing care
during the treatment transition.
Seneca Block said she is the endowment director
for Lauren Rich-Fine expression therapy at UH Connor Whole Health.
UH Connor Whole Health manages the largest health system-based music therapy program in the United States, and board-certified music therapists work with providers throughout the system to help patients and their families manage the physical and mental burden
of illness or hospitalization.
In addition, UH Connor Total Health offers multiple integrative health and medical modalities, including acupuncture, chiropractic, and integrative medical consultation, centered on the patient's overall health
.

In "Clinical Delivery and Effectiveness of Music Therapy in Hematology and Oncology: An EMMPIRE Retrospective Study," researchers examined the clinical delivery and effectiveness of music therapy at UH Seidman Cancer Center and compared the effectiveness
of music therapy for pain, anxiety, and fatigue between adult patients with SCD and adult patients with hematological and/or oncological disorders excluding SCD (HemOnc group).

Music therapists provide interventions that include live music listening, active music composition, and songwriting to meet the patient's needs, including coping, pain management, anxiety reduction, and self-expression
.
As part of clinical care, music therapists assess patients' self-reported pain, anxiety, and fatigue at the beginning and end of each session, on a scale of 0 to 10, and document their treatment in
an electronic health record.

"What makes this study unique is that we were able to collect all the data in the electronic health record and then extract and analyze that data to understand the real-world impact of music therapy," said
Sam Rogers-Melnick, a music therapist and first author of the study and co-investigator of the EMMPIRE project.
The effectiveness of E meters from medical meters to US Therapy P Drill: I ntegrativeR Search E Electronic Health Records) studies the effectiveness of
music therapy throughout the UH health system.
"This study highlights the increased burden of symptoms that adults with SCD face in hospital, and the significant impact
a single session of music therapy has on their pain and anxiety.
" This study is a three-year study given by the Kula Foundation to Jeffrey A.
Dussek, Ph.
D.
, Director of Research, UH Connor for Holistic Health, Brock and Rogers Melnick
.

Rogers Melnick, principal investigator of the first systematic study of the use of music therapy in patients with SCD, has led several studies
on the topic funded by the Kulas Foundation since 2014.
These studies support the benefits
of music therapy in managing acute pain, improving self-efficacy and quality of life, and improving knowledge of sickle cell disease in adolescents and young adults, from pediatrics to adult care.

Recent findings showed that in a combined sample of patients in the SCD and HemOnc groups, statistically significant reductions in pain (1.
48), anxiety (2.
58), and fatigue (0.
84) were observed, with changes in pain and anxiety exceeding clinically significant thresholds
.
Music therapy differed between groups, with interventions including active music composition, songwriting, and songrecording more common
in the SCD group than in the HemOnc group.
In addition, when analyzing patients' comments on music therapy, the themes expressed by patients included improvements in enjoyment, gratitude, mood, pain, and anxiety
.

"It helps me release everyday stress and stress," said
one patient in the study's qualitative analysis.
"I've been through a lot of tough moments, but it really gave me courage
.
You gave me a way to
express my feelings.
"The patient response highlights the importance of the expertise of music therapists in meeting the needs of
patients.
As Rogers Melnik says, "Our job is not just to provide tailored receptive music interventions to address symptoms
.
" The way we build therapeutic relationships with our patients and actively engage them in the musical process is critical
to helping patients express their thoughts and feelings, as well as to cope with the range of treatments at the cancer center.
”

"Integrative oncology uses complementary therapies, such as music therapy discussed in this study, to improve the health of
cancer patients.
Using evidence-based methods and establishing research allows us to confidently build a program around supporting patients to adopt integrative therapies as part of a strategy to manage the symptoms they may experience in treatment or cancer," explains Santosh Rao, MD, a board-certified medical oncologist and integrative medicine provider and medical director of
integrative oncology at UH Connor Whole Health.
RE retrospective study