Music Therapies and Pediatric Cancer Patients

Music feeds the soul but does it increase the comfort and healing of pediatric cancer patients? Joke Bradt Phd., an associate professor of creative art therapies at Drexel University and her colleagues set out to answer that very question.

Dr. Bradt and her colleagues reviewed data that was presented by over 30 studies that were carried out over the course of ten years that included 1,891 adult and children participants. The studies included groups that were exposed to recorded music and groups that made their own music.

The Findings

According to Medical News Today, Dr. Bradt's article Musical interventions for producing psychological and physical outcomes in cancer patients looks at twomain factors in the reanalysis of the data. Is music an effective alternative to other interventions? Is music a more effective intervention for children than adults?

Dr. Bradt has reported after analyzing the data that music therapies helped cancer patients to reduce their anxiety, control pain more effectively and lower their blood pressure. Music therapies generally improved the condition of both adults and children but children reported feeling much more of the positive effects.

Dr. Bradt believes that children receive more positive benefits from Music Therapies than adults do because they are 'wired' for sound from birth and have yet to lose that wiring to adult hood.

There are other questions that need to be addressed that have yet to be looked at. Things like What type of music is most beneficial? At what point in treatment does Music Therapy have the most effect? Do participants benefit more from participating in the music or simply by listening?

What This All Means

Music therapy is one of the most cost effective interventions there are. Health insurance companies will be much more likely to adopt Music Therapy as an alternative intervention because of the cost cutting factors. A good health insurance plan will be open to providing the coverage for these therapies.

Ultimately according to the study music feeds not only the soul but the body as well.

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