The Effect of Music Therapy in Pulmonary Rehabilitation of COPD Patients Aged 40-75

Physiology and psychology of COPD

COPD is a syndrome with a progressive pulmonary obstruction leading to increasingly impaired lung function due to chronic inflammation in the respiratory passages and pulmonary tissue. Living with COPD everyday life is a struggle and often marked with reduced physical activity, again leading to progression of disease, by which a vicious circle develops. Declining physical performance is associated with ventilation restriction, insufficient oxygen diffusion, respiratory muscle and peripheral skeletal muscle dysfunction, ventricular dysfunction and so on.

On a psychological level COPD patients tend to suffer from comorbidities such as increased stress and anxiety levels e.g. due to dyspnea and dysfunction. In conclusion, COPD often leads to a severe condition that both physically and psychologically can be very difficult to manage and cope with.

COPD and rehabilitation

Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is multidisciplinary and comprehensive intervention that may improve the interrelated physical and psychological consequences of the disease. It is designed to optimize functional status, reduce symptoms, improve health-related quality of life, reduce anxiety and depression, reduce exacerbations and mortality. However, in spite of documented efficacy and strong recommendations, PR is largely underutilized because most programs have been carried out on an inpatient or outpatient basis, relying on high cost, adequate doctors or therapists and regular visits to hospital. Another problem is the long-term maintenance of benefits once the hospital-based PR program has been completed, since gains achieved diminish progressively if training is abandoned. For these reasons, home-based PR has been proposed as an alternative to outpatient rehabilitation.