Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Mar 27, 2023; 15(3): 471-479
Published online Mar 27, 2023. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v15.i3.471
Effect of music therapy on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in gastrointestinal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Fang-Ping Zhong, Jun Zhong, Ming-Yan Zhong
Fang-Ping Zhong, Ming-Yan Zhong, Department of Oncology, Pingxiang Second People’s Hospital, Pingxiang 337000, Jiangxi Province, China
Jun Zhong, School of Biomedical Engineering, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou 511436, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Zhong FP and Zhong J contributed equally to this work; Zhong MY designed the study; Zhong FP contributed to the analysis of the manuscript; Zhong J involved in the data and writing of this article; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: I read the PRISMA 2009 list, and the manuscript was prepared and revised based on the PRISMA 2009 list.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Fang-Ping Zhong, CCST, MS, RN, Associate Chief Nurse, Department of Oncology, Pingxiang Second People’s Hospital, No. 18-301 Athenian Century Garden, Anyuan Town, Anyuan District, Pingxiang 337000, Jiangxi Province, China. zz23181113441123@163.com
Received: January 11, 2023
Peer-review started: January 11, 2023
First decision: January 30, 2023
Revised: February 6, 2023
Accepted: February 27, 2023
Article in press: February 27, 2023
Published online: March 27, 2023
Processing time: 75 Days and 4.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Chemotherapy is the primary treatment for patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer, but it has many adverse reactions, particularly nausea and vomiting. Music therapy can reduce anxiety symptoms, avoid the response to the human body under various stress conditions through psychological adjustment, and improve the adverse reactions of chemotherapy.

AIM

To investigate the impact of music therapy on relieving gastrointestinal adverse reactions in chemotherapy for patients with digestive tract cancer by meta-analysis.

METHODS

EMBASE, PubMed, OVID, WoS, CNKI, CBM, and VIP database were all used for searching relevant literature, and the efficacy after treatment was combined for analysis and evaluation.

RESULTS

This study included seven articles. The results of meta-analysis indicated that music therapy could reduce the nausea symptom score of patients after chemotherapy [mean difference (MD) = -3.15, 95% confidence interval (CI): -4.62 to -1.68, Z = -4.20, P < 0.0001]. Music therapy could reduce the vomiting symptom score of patients after chemotherapy (MD = -2.28, 95%CI: -2.46 to -2.11, Z = -25.15, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, music therapy could minimize the incidence of grade I and above nausea or vomiting in patients after chemotherapy (odds ratio = 0.38, 95%CI: 0.26-0.56, Z = -4.88, P < 0.0001). Meta-regression analysis found that publication year was not a specific factor affecting the combined results. There was no significant publication bias (P > 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Music therapy can significantly improve the scores of nausea and vomiting symptoms in patients with digestive system cancer during chemotherapy and reduce the incidence of grade I and above nausea and vomiting after chemotherapy, making it an effective psychological intervention method worthy of clinical promotion.

Keywords: Music therapy; Gastrointestinal cancer; Nausea and vomiting; Gastrointestinal reactions

Core Tip: Music therapy bases on the theories and methods of psychotherapy. It helps human body to react positively under various stress conditions through psychological adjustment, interest improving, and anxiety symptoms reduction. Music therapy plays a role in improving the negative emotions of cancer patients. However, whether it could reduce nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy still remains unknown. In this meta-analysis, we searched the public databases for relevant articles and pooled the results of the symptom scores and incidence of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting to further discussion.