Description of the intervention
It is therefore important that the care of cancer patients incorporates
services that help meet patients’ psychological, social and
spiritual needs. Music has been used in different medical fields to
meet such needs. Research on the effects of music and music therapy
for medical patients has burgeoned during the past 20 years
and has included a variety of outcome measures in a wide range of
specialty areas (Dileo 2005). For adult, as well as pediatric cancer
patients, music has been used to decrease anxiety prior to or during
surgical procedures (Burns 1999; Haun 2001; Pfaff 1989), to
decrease tension during chemotherapy or radiation therapy (Clark
2006;Weber 1996), to lessen treatment side effects (Bozcuk 2006;
Ezzone 1998; Frank 1985), to improvemood (Bailey 1983 Barrera
2002; Burns 2001; Cassileth 2003), to enhance pain management
(Akombo 2006; Beck 1989), to improve immune system functioning
(Burns 2001; Camprubi 1999) and to improve quality of
life (QoL) (Burns 2001; Hilliard 2003).
When examining the efficacy of music interventions with cancer
patients, it is important to make a clear distinction between music
interventions administered by medical or health care professionals
(music medicine) and those implemented by trainedmusic
therapists (music therapy). A substantive set of data (Dileo 2005)
indicates that music therapy interventions with medical populations
are significantly more effective than music medicine interventions
for a wide variety of outcomes. This difference might be
attributed to the fact that music therapists individualize their interventions
to meet patients’ specific needs, more actively engagethe patients in the music making, and employ a systematic therapeutic
process including assessment, treatment and evaluation.
As defined by Dileo (Dileo 1999), interventions are categorized
as music medicine when passive listening to pre-recorded music is
offered by medical personnel. For example, a CD may be offered
to a patient for relaxation or distraction; however, no systematic
therapeutic process is present, nor is there a systematic assessment
of the elements and suitability of the music stimulus. In contrast,
music therapy requires the implementation of a music intervention
by a trained music therapist, the presence of a therapeutic
process, and the use of personally tailored music experiences.
These music experiences include:
• listening to live, improvised or pre-recorded music;
• performing music on an instrument;
• improvising music spontaneously using voice and/or
instruments;
• composing music;
• music combined with other modalities (e.g. movement,
imagery, art) (Dileo 2007).