Few things are more stressful than illness and surgery. Can music reduce stress, provide a viable alternative to sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs and pain medication? Several trials show it can
Music and healing have had an association for thousands of years, in ancient Greece, Apollo was the God of both music and medicine. Nowadays many surgeons use background music to relieve stress both for themselves and their patients during long, repetitive operations.
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The human brain and nervous system are hard-wired to distinguish music from noise and to respond to rhythm and repetition. Our brains are literally wired from birth to receive musical tones. Doctors tell us that music can enhance the function of neural networks, slow the heart rate, lower blood pressure, reduce levels of stress hormones and inflammatory cytokines, and provide some relief to patients undergoing surgery. It is also effective in overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people's motivation to become engaged in their treatment, providing emotional support for patients, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.
Researchers analysed 73 studies that involved ~6500 patients...
that compared outcomes after surgery between patients who listened to music, either that they played themselves or clinicians played for them, with those who either had no music or white noise (1).The researchers found that patients who listened to music either before, during or after surgery had less pain, took less pain medication and were less anxious after surgery.
The effects lasted more than four hours following the operation. Music significantly lowered patients' postoperative pain, anxiety, and analgesia use and increased patients' satisfaction.Research is indicating that music facilitates the creation of new connections between nerve cells, it elevates levels of substances such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which contribute to nerve cell proliferation (cell division) and survival (2).
Music has also been shown to favourably regulate immunological, psychobiological, and physiological responses
Using music in unison with visual imagery modulates numbers of different immune cell populations such as neutrophils and lymphocytes (which are part of the body’s biological defence system) (3). Guided imagery exercises with music boosts levels of secretory IgA (SIgA), an antibody often depleted in immunocompromised or chronically ill individuals. SIgA is important in the protection of the digestive lining and other mucus membranes (4). Music may also buffer the stress-induced increase in stress hormones, reducing the need for sedatives and affect levels of the pain-relieving opioid called beta-endorphin, which our body produces, reducing the need for pain medication (5).
A study of 80 patients undergoing urologic surgery under spinal anaesthesia...
found that music can decrease the need for supplementary intravenous sedation. In this trial, patients were able to control the amount of sedative they received during their operation. Patients who were randomly assigned to listen to music needed less calming medication than those assigned to listen to white noise or to the chatter and clatter of the operating room itself.
A study of 10 critically ill postoperative patients reported that music can reduce the stress response even when patients are not conscious.
All the patients were receiving the powerful intravenous sedative propofol, so they could be maintained on breathing machines in the intensive care unit (ICU). Half the patients were randomly assigned to wear headphones that played slow movements from Mozart piano sonatas, while the other half wore headphones that did not play music. Nurses who didn't know which patients were hearing music reported that those who heard music required significantly less propofol to maintain deep sedation than those patients wearing silent headphones. The music recipients also had lower blood pressures and heart rates as well as lower blood levels of the stress hormone adrenaline and the inflammation-promoting cytokine interleukin-6
Given there is much emerging research on listening to music before, during and after surgery, I have compiled a few tunes to get you started on creating your playlist. Consider these a mental symphony of soothing sounds to ease the sting of surgery, and I hope as you recover, that you find yourself dancing to the beat before you know it.
Positive Energy
Recovery
Find Your Way
Peace
References
1. Hole J, Hirsch M, Ball E, Meads C. (2015) Music as an aid for postoperative recovery in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Vol 386, Issue 10004, P1659-1671.
2. Fukui, H., & Toyoshima, K. (2009). Music facilitate the neurogenesis, regeneration and repair of neurons. Medical Hypotheses, 71(5), 765-769.
3. Rider, M.S., & Achterberg, J. (1989). Effect of music-assisted imagery on neutrophils and lymphocytes. Biofeedback and Self-Regulation, 14(3), 247-257.
4. Rider, M.S. et al. (1990). Effect of immune system imagery on secretory IgA. Biofeedback and Self- Regulation, 15(4), 317-333.
5. McKinney, C.H. et al. (1997). The effect of selected classical musicians spontaneous imagery on plasma beta-endorphin. Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 20(1), 85-99.