Music helps young cancer patients cope better

Music therapy can help teenagers and young people cope better when faced with treatment for cancer, a new study suggests.

Adolescents and young adults undergoing cancer treatment gain coping skills and resilience-related outcomes when they participate in a therapeutic music process that includes writing song lyrics and producing videos, researchers found.

The findings indicate that such music therapy interventions can provide essential psychosocial support to help young patients positively adjust to cancer.

US researchers Joan E Haase, and Sheri L Robb, led a team that tested a music therapy intervention designed to improve resilience in patients undergoing stem cell transplant treatments for cancer.
 

The researchers' Therapeutic Music Video intervention was designed to help adolescents and young adults explore and express thoughts and emotions about their disease and treatment that might otherwise go unspoken.

For the study, 113 patients aged 11 to 24 years who were undergoing stem cell transplant treatments for cancer were randomised to be part of a Therapeutic Music Video intervention group or to be part of a control group that received audio-books.

Participants completed six sessions over three weeks.

After the intervention, the Therapeutic Music Video group reported significantly better courageous coping, researchers said.

One hundred days after stem cell transplant treatments, the Therapeutic Music Video group reported significantly better social integration and family environment.

"These protective factors influence the ways adolescents and young adults cope, gain hope, and find meaning in the midst of their cancer journey," said Haase, of Indiana University School of Nursing, said.

The study was published in the journal of the American Cancer Society.