Benefits of therapeutic music during radiotherapy

Therapeutic music is music with integrated RHS frequency of 60 beats/min.

During the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, researchers from Germany studied whether therapeutic music might lead to more correct positioning and the need for fewer verification films.

First, the details.

• 33 patients were assigned to a treatment group.
  • Therapeutic music for relaxation and calming
  • Control patients did not listen any therapeutic music
• Pulse rate during radiotherapy and the number of the verifications were recorded.
  • Verification was calculated using the number of radiation divided by the number of verifications.
• Subjective mental state was also examined with a questionnaire.

And, the results.

• The pulse frequency of patients, who listened to therapeutic music during radiotherapy was reduced more than in the Control patients.
  • Effectiveness of TM was high for young (30-40 years = 70%) and old (80-90 years = 58%) patients.
  • Effectiveness was less for middle-aged patients (40-50 years = 42%; 50-60 years = 40 %; 60-80 years = 51%).
• Effectiveness of therapeutic music increased with longer radiotherapy sessions.
• The verification quotient for patients who listened therapeutic music was 5.5 vs 4.6 for those who didn’t listen therapeutic music.
• 65% of patients rated therapeutic music very good, 35% as good.
• 96% of patients stated they felt noticeably more calmly and relaxed.

The bottom line?

It’s not clear if any of these findings achieve statistical significant.

Regardless, the authors concluded, “Therapeutic music during radiotherapy leads to calming and relaxation (reduced pulse frequency) and to a more correct positioning (higher radiotherapy-verification-quotient) and is felt and estimated subjectively as positive (thus more acceptance and compliance).”

6/6/11 19:43 JR