“Music as a Therapy to Treat Post-Chemotherapy Nausea: Pilot Study”

Music, a new therapeutic way to treat post-chemotherapy nausea? This is in any case the subject of the pilot study conducted by Jason Kiernan, assistant professor at the College of Nursing at the University of Michigan, with a dozen patients treated for cancer.

Nausea and vomiting are indeed part of the side effects of chemotherapy. To relieve them while maintaining a good level of hydration, it is generally recommended to drink water, soft drinks, ginger teas or vegetable broths, and always in small sips.

In some cases, taking antiemetic drugs is recommended. And if we are to believe the results of Jason Kiernan’s experiment, the effects of these drugs are amplified… thanks to music.

Less nausea

The small study therefore looked at 12 chemotherapy patients, who agreed to listen to their favorite songs for 30 minutes when they were due to take their antiemetic medication.

They repeated the operation each time they felt nauseous during the five days following their chemotherapy. A total of 66 listening sessions were carried out.

Result: patients reported less severe forms of nausea and felt less distress related to having this nausea. Impossible, however, to determine the real impact of the music, recognizes Jason Kiernan, who explains that the nausea caused by chemotherapy does not come from gastric disorders, but neurological.

Serotonin in question?

A possible explanation may lie in a previous study that looked at serotonin released while patients listened to music that was either pleasant or unpleasant to them. Why serotonin? Because it is “the main neurotransmitter causing nausea caused by chemotherapy”, says Jason Kiernan.

In this previous study, the researchers concluded that patients who listened to pleasant music had the lowest levels of serotonin release, indicating that it remained in the blood platelets and was not released to circulate in the body. body… and therefore cause possible nausea and vomiting.

A track that Jason Kiernan wants to study more precisely for future research on the treatment of post-chemotherapy nausea and vomiting.

Source : Clinical Nursing Research – Avril 2023