Anxiety is a mental health disorder with serious consequences on a victim’s well-being. Though a few bouts of anxiety could be normal in human life, chronic anxiety is bad and can harmfully affect a person’s quality of life. Anxiety affects very many aspects of human life from one’s socialization with family and friends to one’s career and other duties or responsibilities, both domestic and professional. This mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (2016), affects about 40 million Americans and costs the country 42 billion every year. As such, several researches have been done and articles written on the same, trying to analyze the condition and come up with different treatment strategies. This paper is going to look at two articles on anxiety providing a summary of the same amongst other crucial information on the effect of anxiety.
The first article tackled includes a pilot study on how music therapy can be used to reduce pain in cancer patients and subsequently, to also reduce the anxiety levels among cancer patients. This article was worked on by Krishnaswamy and Nair (2016), from St John's Medical College Hospital, India. Most cancers patients, one in every three, experience pain (Mayo clinic staff, 2016). This pain, at times, raises the anxiety levels of these patients. Hence, through this article and more specifically the cited pilot study, its authors proposed a non-pharmacological approach of using music to manage the pain that cancer patients undergo. As such, the main hypothesis of the study was on whether music could help reduce pain to cancer patients and subsequently reduce anxiety. The design of the study was comparative, and it involved 14 cancer patients who had been admitted a care hospital due to pain complications. From the numerical pain scale, the patients’ pains ranged from a scale of 4 to10.
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The sample of the study entailed 14 cancer patients with different pain levels who were non-randomly separated equally into two groups, test, and control. Music therapy was used in the test group while the control group was only engaged in conversations during the exercise. Both groups were engaged for 20 minutes during the therapy. Before the beginning of the therapy, pain and anxiety levels were measured. Anxiety was measured by the Hamilton Anxiety Rating scale while the Numerical Rating Scale determined pain level. The measurement of the two variables was also conducted at the completion of the therapy. Analysis of the result was done using the t-test.
Results of the study revealed that music therapy has a significant effect of reducing pain far much more than conversing with patients has. Despite equal pain level for the two groups at the beginning of the study, post-intervention scores on pain for the test group was 0.003 while that of the control group was 0.356. Music had a significant effect in easing the pain of patients. The other variable investigates, anxiety, and did not statistically exhibit any significant change from either of the groups after the therapy. Both groups reported little change which was insignificant statistically.
From the results posted, music therapy combined with regular palliative care had a significant effect in reducing pain in a cancer patient, with moderate to acute pain levels recorded. As such, music therapy as a non-pharmacological method can be included in cancer therapy sessions to help reduce pain.
The second article provides a study on the relationship between sedentary behavior and anxiety symptoms on women. Anxiety is associated and often caused by factors such as fear, segregation, and excess worry. Due to brain chemistry differences and how hormones fluctuate in men and women, it has been found that two women for every man, are likely to encounter anxiety (Howard, 2016). Although this gender gap exists and physical activity can play a crucial role in decreasing the anxiety risk, the study by Teychenne and Hinkley (2016), aimed at examining the association between anxiety and screen-based sedentary behavior of women with children regardless of their level of activity. Sedentary behavior involved the time taken watching television, working on the computer, playing computer or video games and using handheld devices. This was a correlation study done on 528 women who had young children aged between 2 and five years. Women were randomly sampled from different areas in terms of economic strength, geographical location, and ethnicity. They were then properly screened to determine whether they had children below the age of five. Once this was established, the women were sent a link to which they could help with the online survey. From a total of 1234 parents, 528 mothers were selected to help with the survey.
The data used was a cross-sectional data from 528 mothers which had been collected between 2013 and 2014. The data was collected from interested mothers of pre-schooling children through an online survey. These mothers relayed their leisure screen-based behavior and using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, also relayed subsequent anxiety symptoms they experienced. The variables in this study were few and univariate. As such, linear regression was the best method to analyze the cross-sectional relationship between the women’s sedentary behavior and the resultant anxiety symptoms. The screen-based sedentary behavior was the independent variable while anxiety symptoms were the dependent variables.
On adjusting the models on key variables, the result of the study revealed a positive correlation between usage of computers and handheld devices with an increase in anxiety symptoms. Any additional hour of using computers or handheld devices increased the anxiety score by 0.21 points. In overall, excessive screen time had a positive correlation with the increase in anxiety in the women. However, TV viewing did not have any relationship with the increase in anxiety symptoms.
The study concluded that excessive exposure to screens especially computers and handheld devices is linked to cases of anxiety among women with young children independent of their activity level. Despite this conclusion, the study revealed a need for further research to be done on to determine sequential associations. As such, research on reduction of time these mothers use on computer screens and handheld devices for relaxing as well as the total screen time in recreational time needs to be carried out. All in all, all necessary tools should be employed to lower the danger of anxiety in this vulnerable group
References
Howard, J (2016). Why women are way more likely than men to suffer anxiety. Retrieved from http://edition.cnn.com/2016/06/08/health/women-anxiety-disorders/
Krishnaswamy, P., & Nair, S. (2016). Effect of Music Therapy on Pain and Anxiety Levels of Cancer Patients: A Pilot Study. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 22(3), 307-311. doi:10.4103/0973-1075.185042
Mayo clinic staff (2016) Cancer pain: Relief is possible . Retrieved from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cancer/in-depth/cancer-pain/art-20045118
National Institute of Mental Health. (2016). Anxiety Disorders . Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml
Teychenne, M., & Hinkley, T. (2016). Associations between Screen-Based Sedentary Behavior and Anxiety Symptoms in Mothers with Young Children. Plos ONE , 11 (5), 1-10. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0155696
