The Effects of Clinical Music Therapy on Resiliency in Adults Undergoing Infusion: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

John F Mondanaro; Gabriel A Sara; Roshni Thachil; Marija Pranjić; Andrew Rossetti; Grace EunHye Sim; Bernardo Canga; Ilene Brodoff Harrison; Joanne V Loewy

doi:10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.10.032

The Effects of Clinical Music Therapy on Resiliency in Adults Undergoing Infusion: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

J Pain Symptom Manage. 2021 Jun;61(6):1099-1108. doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.10.032. Epub 2020 Nov 2.

Authors

John F Mondanaro¹, Gabriel A Sara², Roshni Thachil³, Marija Pranjić⁴, Andrew Rossetti⁵, Grace EunHye Sim⁶, Bernardo Canga⁷, Ilene Brodoff Harrison⁸, Joanne V Loewy⁹

Affiliations

¹ The Louis Armstrong Department of Music Therapy, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, New York, USA. Electronic address: John.Mondanaro@mountsinai.org.
² Infusion Suite at Mount Sinai West, Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
³ Stanford University School of Engineering, Stanford, California, USA.
⁴ Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Radiation Oncology Music Therapy Program, Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York, New York, USA.
⁶ NYC Health+Hospitals, New York, New York, USA.
⁷ Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, USA.
⁸ Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
⁹ The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.

PMID: 33152443
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.10.032

Abstract

Context: Eighty-seven patients newly diagnosed with lung, breast, or gastrointestinal cancer and undergoing chemotherapy in the infusion suite of a large urban hospital in New York City.

Objective: Patients were enrolled in this study of music therapy's impact on resilience in coping with the impact of symptoms inclusive of symptom clustering.

Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to three arms: clinical instrumental improvisation or clinical vocal improvisation 43 subjects to instrumental improvisation or vocal improvisation and 44 subjects to control. All subjects received a Medical Music Psychotherapy Assessment including psychosocial information and music preferences, pre-/post-Resilience Scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Visual Analogue Scale/Faces Scale, and a pain-Color Analysis Scale. Interventions included 20-minute music therapy (MT) and two additional sessions.

Results: Significant increases in Resilience Scale in MT groups after treatment with instrumental and vocal MT interventions equally potent-reflect average changes of 3.4 and 4.83 (P = 0.625), respectively. Although Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale scores showed little impact of MT on perceived anxiety/depression, a strong correlation is seen between vocal intervention and lower depression scores through Visual Analogue Scale-rendered postsessions. This yielded a significant decrease in pain levels immediately after MT, with the final session showing the most significant change in pain level. Resilience in enduring procedures is a necessary component of combating potential negative illness perception.

Conclusion: Our study shows MT's facility to propel resilience in patients newly diagnosed with cancer, particularly when promoting and pairing adaptation toward coping through the expression of perceived negative effects of emotional and physiological symptoms.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02261558.

Keywords: Cancer; chemotherapy; music therapy; oncology; resilience; symptom clustering.

Publication types

Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

Adult
Anxiety
Depression / therapy
Humans
Music Therapy*
Music*
New York City
Treatment Outcome

Associated data

ClinicalTrials.gov/NCT02261558