Comparison of Depressive Symptom Outcomes in Hospitalized Adult Cancer Patients Receiving Music Therapy or Massage Therapy.

CONTEXT: Depressive symptoms are prevalent and associated with greater healthcare utilization among hospitalized adults with cancer. Music therapy and massage therapy are available at many National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Designated Cancer Centers and recommended by the American Society of Clinical Oncology for depressive symptoms, but a paucity of studies have compared these two therapies.

OBJECTIVES: We conducted a retrospective, multi-method program evaluation of single, first-time music therapy and massage therapy sessions delivered to hospitalized adults with cancer.

METHODS: The study was conducted at an NCI-Designated Comprehensive Cancer Center between February 2018 and October 2019. We assessed depressive symptoms with the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) depression item. We also invited patients to provide free-text comments describing their treatment experience.

RESULTS: Among 1764 patients (61.2% women, 72.7% white), 350 received music therapy and 1414 received massage therapy; music therapy was associated with a 0.4 point greater reduction (95% 0.3 to 0.6, P

CONCLUSION: Among hospitalized adult cancer patients, both music therapy and massage therapy were associated with reduced depressive symptoms, but music therapy was associated with a greater reduction than massage therapy.