The Effect of Music Therapy on Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Patients With Cancer in Valiasr Hospital in Birjand, 2017

Cancer is one of the prevalent diseases that allocates a large part of the resources of the health care system. Stress, anxiety, and depression are major problems in patients with cancer. Therefore, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of music therapy on stress, anxiety, and depression in patients with cancer. This research was a quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test and control group. The statistical population consisted of all patients with cancer admitted for treatment in Valiasr Hospital in Birjand City, Iran, in 2017. Out of them, 40 people (20 men and 20 women) were selected by sampling method and randomly divided into experimental and control groups (each group included 20 patients; 10 women and 10 men). Initially, both groups were pre-tested. Then, the experimental group received music therapy (for 6 days, half an hour per day). At the end of the study, both groups responded to the research instrument (post-test). The study instrument was DOS Stress and stress questionnaire (21 questions). The obtained data were analyzed by analysis of covariance in SPSS V.22. The results showed that music therapy is effective on lowering stress, anxiety and depression in patients with cancer. Non-medical methods such as music therapy should be considered in the medical staff training program and also be considered as part of the treatment in all hospital patients, especially in special departments.