Music Reduces Pain, Anxiety After Surgery

“Music is a simple and cheap intervention, which reduces transient discomforts for many patients undergoing surgery”, Dr. Paul Glasziou from Bond University in Queensland, Australia, wrote in a commentary.

“This is another demonstration of nontraditional, non-pharmacologic methods of helping patients deal with pain anxiety and the general medical experience”, he said.

While they have found out that music therapy can reduce anxiety, stress and pain, they found out that it does not have any effect when it comes to the length of patient’s hospital stay.

Dr Meads says in a statement: “Music is a non-invasive, safe, cheap intervention that should be available to everyone undergoing surgery”.

She said the medical profession had generally been sceptical about the benefit of music, and she hoped the study would shift perceptions.

Scientists are planning for a follow-up on the research, with a pilot scheme to introduce music into operative settings at The Royal London Hospital.

The researchers also report that the music must not interfere with the surgical team’s ability to communicate during the surgical procedure.

We know that the right type of music at just the right time has the incredible ability to flip our mood around completely.

In addition, the team identified slightly greater – though “non-significant” – pain reduction and reduced use of pain relief after surgery if patients chose their own music to listen to.

The best outcomes occurred when music was played before rather than after an operation. “The very high heterogeneity of effects among trials in the accompanying study highlights a research opportunity – to identify how to maximise the effect”.

The findings were published earlier this week, on Wednesday (August 12, 2015), in the medical journal The Lancet.

Music has a positive impact on patients. Dr. Ron Marino, associate chair of pediatrics over at Winthrop-University Hospital (Mineola, N.Y.), gave a statement calling music a powerful tool and saying that it has deep roots in every culture and civilization on the planet. The Huffington Post also reported that studies show how music helps the body consume oxygen more efficiently while exercising.

In a review of more than 70 clinical trials involving nearly 7,000 patients, researchers found music to be a powerful analgesic under almost all circumstances. The only exceptions to the general rule of the benefits of music were surgery on the central nervous system, head and neck, all related to a potential hearing impairment. “However, it’s taken pulling together all the small studies… into one robust meta-analysis to really prove it works”.