Music therapy in Oncology

Cancer may bring physical and emotional distress. Distress can be a normal and adaptive reaction from patients experiencing an oncologic illness, but it can also hinder psychological adjustment and, in some cases, can lead patients to psychopathological disorders. Psychological interventions as well as other different treatment modalities are usually used to reduce distress symptoms and to improve quality of life of cancer patients. Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of music therapy in the medical and oncologic settings. The purpose of this article is to introduce music therapy as a coadjuvant intervention that offers a multimodal and integrative approach that can address the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs of cancer patients. (C) 2015 Sociedad Mexicana de Oncologia. Published by Masson Doyma Mexico S.A. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license