DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2021.v09i05.013

Pages: 689-694

The emotion of fear and anxiety is the body’s basic mechanism to deal with the feeling of threat, danger or motivational conflict. In COVID-19, the main risk factors for fear and anxiety are uncertainties, updates from world bodies on health, the unknown reality, new practices, social isolation, lack of healthcare facilities and the hype around the pandemic created by the media. Drug therapy, Cognitive behavioural therapy and some non-pharmacological approaches help to treat the anxiety created by the pandemic. However, most of them are expensive and have side effects. In comparison, use of an intervention in the form of music could have advantages. Music could be administered as a ‘music medicine’ without a trained therapist or as a therapy with a therapist. Music therapy helps to improve the coping abilities, reduces the feeling of psychological distress and imbibes positive thoughts. In COVID-19, patients spend a long time in self-isolation and these periods of social isolation could trigger anxiety or fear. Music therapy could be a useful approach here. However, there is still a paucity of data on the possible role of music as an adjunct therapy for reducing fear and anxiety in COVID-19. The present article discusses some key aspects of the role of music in reducing COVID-19 related fear and anxiety.