Clinical Research Directory

Music Therapy Program for Patients in Palliative Care (MUSPAL360)

Sponsor: Austral University, Argentina

Summary

Hospitalized patients with advanced cancer often experience a heavy burden of physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms that affect their quality of life. This study will evaluate whether a structured, three-session music therapy program called MUSPAL360 can be feasibly delivered to hospitalized adult patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care at Hospital Universitario Austral (HUA). MUSPAL360 includes three sessions delivered over about one week during hospitalization: Music therapy combined with virtual reality, focused on support and relaxation. Selection of personally meaningful songs, focused on communication and expression. Creation of a musical life story based on chronological biographical questions, focused on transformation. Family caregivers may participate in the sessions if the patient agrees. All participants receive standard palliative care in addition to the music therapy program; there is no control group and no randomization. This is a feasibility study, not a study designed to test whether the program works. The main goals are to determine the proportion of eligible patients, the proportion who consent to participate, how many complete each session, how complete the collected data are, and whether any adverse events occur. The study also collects preliminary, exploratory information on symptom burden and spiritual wellbeing before and after the program, to help plan the sample size of a future confirmatory study. The researchers plan to enroll a minimum of 40 hospitalized patients, anticipating substantial attrition between sessions due to the clinical course of advanced illness in this population.

Official title: Feasibility Study of the MUSPAL360 Music Therapy Program in Adult Patients With Advanced Oncological Disease in Palliative Care at HUA

Key Details

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Interventions