Listening to Music May Speed Up Recovery From Surgery, Say Scientists
Patients listening to music post-surgery used 50% less morphine because they they felt they were in less pain, the study found.
Listening to Music May Speed Up Recovery From Surgery
We often say that music calms the savage beast. Now it looks like it can calm savage pain too. A new study has revealed that patients who listened to music after surgery had noticeable effects during the recovery period, including a reduction in pain and anxiety levels.
Listening to Music Results in Less Pain and Anxiety
Researchers performed a review of existing studies on music and surgery recovery, narrowing a list of 3756 studies down to 35 and focusing on data like pain, anxiety, heart rate and opioid use.
Listening to music while in recovery from surgery, the researchers found, resulted in dramatic decreases in perceived pain and anxiety.
“Although we can’t specifically say they’re in less pain,” said Shehzaib Raees, one of the authors of the paper, “the studies revealed that patients perceive they are in less pain.”
Patients listening to music while in recovery were found to have a heart rate about 4.5 beats per minute slower than non-listeners, as well as using less than half the amount of morphine to regulate pain.
Listening to Music in the Recovery Room
The findings, which were reported at ACS Clinical Congress 2024, suggest that listening to music can help reduce cortisol levels and so ease pain.
However, there were some variables that could not be controlled for, such as the required length of time listening to music for optimal results as well as whether music should be listened to on speakers or headphones.
“Music can help ease the transition from the waking up stage to a return to normalcy and may help reduce stress around that transition,” said Eldo Frezza from California Northstate University College of Medicine.
Sounds like hospitals should start hiring chill out DJs for post-surgery comedown sessions.
More Information
- Original article in the Independent
- All about headphones
- All about speakers
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