Meditation eases anxiety, fatigue and pain for women undergoing breast cancer biopsies, according to researchers.

They also found that music is effective, but to a lesser extent. The researchers note that adopting these simple, inexpensive interventions could be especially helpful in light of recent reports citing anxiety and pain as potential harms from breast cancer screenings and testing.

“Image-guided needle biopsies for diagnosing breast cancer are very efficient and successful, but the anxiety and potential pain can have a negative impact on patient care,” said Mary Scott Soo, associate professor of radiology at Duke Cancer Institute and lead author of the study published online in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.