Chemotherapy is an effective and a well-known treatment plan for all kinds of cancers. One of the most prevalent and incapacitating symptoms that cancer patients encounter is fatigue. Cancer-related fatigue is different from the tiredness that healthy people experience after periods of exertion or insufficient sleep in that it is an unusual, excessive, and pervasive whole-body experience that is unrelated to activity or exertion and is not relieved by rest or sleep.
Cancer-related fatigue affects 75% to 100% of chemotherapy patients. Cancer patient’s fatigue can obstruct self-care tasks, be so severe at times that it necessitates delaying or reducing treatment, and disrupt everyday living. Numerous studies have shown a strong correlation between fatigue, depression and anxiety in cancer patients. Depressive symptoms are described by 2%–50% of cancer patients however they are less frequent than fatigue. From various approaches, fatigue and depression have been defined as having physiologic, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive components. So proper care about these symptoms help patients to cope up with maintaining health.
The European Association for Palliative Care describes cancer-related fatigue (CRF) as a subjective sign of exhaustion, sluggishness, or lack of energy. According to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, CRF is a subjective, upsetting, and enduring sign of physical, emotional, and/or mental weariness caused by the illness or its treatment. Fatigue often limits or even prevents the continuation of radiation because of the indisposition it creates. Consequently, in a multidisciplinary approach, fatigue medical care should be given top emphasis.
According to scientific investigations, the use of music for therapeutic reasons is recommended in cancer therapy for depression, anxiety, and exhaustion.
Music therapy, a pleasant vocal stimulant, is one technique used to treat depression and anxiety. There is a long history of using music as a therapeutic technique. As music was described as a healer with a calming effect that lowers anxiety and promotes relaxation in ancient Egypt, Greece, China, India, and Rome's inscriptions.
The patient participates in creating music using their voice or an instrument in active techniques, as opposed to passive techniques, which just need them to listen intently to music and sounds. The results of the research studies suggest that using music therapy is a simple, low-cost, and secure way to lessen depression and anxiety.
Neurophysiological effect:
Virtually all limbic and para-limbic brain areas can have their activity altered by music, according to neurophysiological theory. These structures play a critical role in the development, production, detection, maintenance, control, and termination of emotions, which are ever-present in a person's existence. As a result, at least some musically induced emotions involve the fundamental components of adaptive neuro-affective systems. Therefore, music therapy can aid cancer patients in a variety of ways, including by assisting them in learning coping mechanisms for stress, fear, and loneliness.
Music has a crucial role in the self-regulation of emotional circumstances. Dopamine modulation and genetic expression, as well as changes in serotonin, cortisol, and oxytocin levels, are all influenced by music. Thus, it is feasible to state that the beneficial effects of music therapy, when administered by a trained music therapist, are found on bio-psychosocial principles.
A randomized controlled trial study concludes that music therapy substantially reduced depressive symptoms, fatigue and improved quality of life making it an effective adjuvant therapy for the treatment of cancer patients.