www.irishtimes.com
(http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/music-is-beneficial-to-surgery-patients-study-finds1.2315236)
Music is beneficial to surgery patients, study finds
Music can reduce pain and anxiety during the surgical process, ‘the Lancet’ reports
Studies among 7,000 surgical patients found patients were significantly less anxious after surgery
having listened to music. Photograph: Getty Images/iStockphoto
Thu, Aug 13, 2015
Listening to music before, during or after a surgical procedure is beneficial to patients and
can significantly reduce pain and anxiety, according to new research.
Studies among 7,000 surgical patients from 72 trials, published in medical journal The
Lancet, found patients were significantly less anxious after surgery having listened to music.
The effects extend even while the patient is under general anaesthetic and therefore asleep.
Researcher Dr Paul Glasziou from Bond University in Australia described music as a “simple
and cheap intervention” and cheaper than any drug.
“A drug with similar effects might generate substantial marketing. The very high
heterogeneity of effects among trials in the accompanying study highlights a research
opportunity – to identify how to maximise the effect.”
The effects may have been psychosomatic too, as patients needed less pain medication and
reported less pain compared with controls.
When patients selected their own music, there was a slightly greater reduction in pain and
use of pain relief, the study found.
Lead author Dr Catherine Meads from Brunel University suggested that patients should be
allowed to choose the type of music they would like to hear to maximise the benefit to their
wellbeing.
Useful study
Irish surgeon Prof Sean Tierney, dean of professional development at the Royal College of
Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI) and consultant vascular surgeon in Tallaght Hospital, said the
study was useful but the effects may be somewhat exaggerated.
“Those things help a little, but I’m not sure how much. At the end of the day, morphine is still
more important than the music when you are having major surgery,” he said