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. 2025 May 3;17(5):e83392.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.83392. eCollection 2025 May.

Efficacy of Music Therapy in Reducing Anxiety Among Postsurgical Cancer Patients: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

Rajeev Ranjan  1 , Yash Jaiswal  1 , Sulagna Mallik  1 , Nidhi Joseph Varghese  1 , Jagjit Kumar Pandey  2 , Pankaj Kumar  1 , Ratnadeep Biswas  1 , Vishnu S Ojha  1
Affiliations

Efficacy of Music Therapy in Reducing Anxiety Among Postsurgical Cancer Patients: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

Rajeev Ranjan et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Background: Surgery is one of the key therapeutic modalities for cancers such as breast and colon cancer. Researchers claim that poorly managed anxiety slows recovery in postsurgical cancer patients and requires proactive management, including mind-body therapies like music therapy, which may further help reduce opioid consumption. In this study, we aimed to assess the efficacy of music therapy in reducing anxiety, depression, stress, and pain among postsurgical cancer patients over two weeks.

Methods: This was a randomized, open-label parallel design trial with a sample size of 44 participants divided into two groups: an intervention group A (n = 22) that received music therapy along with the standard treatment regimen, and a control group B (n = 22) that only received the standard treatment regimen. We used curated music tracks. We assessed anxiety and other psychological symptoms (depression and stress) using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) and analyzed pain symptoms using the visual analog scale (VAS) at baseline and after two weeks.

Results: After the two-week period of music therapy as an adjuvant, we observed a significant reduction in anxiety scores (1.73; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.0817 to 3.37; p = 0.040; Cohen's d = 1.35) in the intervention group compared to the control group. For depression (1.09; 95% CI: -0.26 to 2.81; p = 0.207; Cohen's d = 1.04) and pain (0.273; 95% CI: -1.23 to 1.77; p = 0.716; Cohen's d = 0.42), scores in the intervention group also showed reductions compared to the control group, although these were statistically not significant.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest a significant improvement in anxiety scores with two weeks of adjuvant music therapy. Thus, music can be used as a non-invasive adjunctive therapeutic to manage anxiety symptoms in postoperative cancer patients. We recommend further studies on music therapy as an adjuvant treatment for patients with cancer undergoing palliative care.

Keywords: anxiety; cancer; depression; music therapy; pain; stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Human subjects: Consent for treatment and open access publication was obtained or waived by all participants in this study. All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna issued approval AIIMS/Pat/IEC/2022/909. Animal subjects: All authors have confirmed that this study did not involve animal subjects or tissue. Conflicts of interest: In compliance with the ICMJE uniform disclosure form, all authors declare the following: Payment/services info: All authors have declared that no financial support was received from any organization for the submitted work. Financial relationships: All authors have declared that they have no financial relationships at present or within the previous three years with any organizations that might have an interest in the submitted work. Other relationships: All authors have declared that there are no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. CONSORT diagram showing the flow of participants through each stage of the randomized trial
CONSORT: Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials; TAU: Treatment as usual
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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