Bacelar Arruda, M.A., Garcia, M.A., and Santos Garcia, J.B. (2016). Evaluation of the effects of music and poetry in oncologic pain relief: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 19, 943–948.
To evaluate the effects of listening to music and poetry on pain, depression, and hope
Patients were randomly selected for inclusion and then randomly assigned to listen to instrumental music or poetry readings on a MP3 players or to a control group. Therapies were offered for three days and for 30 minutes at a time. Study measurements were obtained before and after the intervention on day 1 and again on the last day. Listening was monitored. The daily variations in pain of the music and poetry group were compared to those of the control group.
Randomized, parallel-group, prospective trial
Listening to music was associated with improvement in pain (p < 0.001) and depression (p = 0.004). Listening to poetry was associated with improvement in pain (p < 0.001), depression (p = 0.001), and hope (p = 0.009). Individuals with either intervention had improvement in pain compared to the controls (p < 0.001), but no difference was observed in other outcomes.
Listening to music or poetry reading may help in the management of pain and depressive symptoms.
Listening to music or poetry may be beneficial to patients in the management of pain and dealing with depressive symptoms. Flaws in this study limit the strength of these findings; however, these are low-risk and low-cost interventions that might be beneficial. The type of music and poetry would likely affect the results for various patients.