Music can help reduce anxiety before anesthesia: study

Washington DC: Music is a viable alternative to sedative drugs to reduce anxiety before a peripheral nerve blocking procedure, say the researchers. Patients usually take sedative medications, such as midazolam, before the procedure to reduce anxiety. In this study, researchers found that relaxing music was as effective as the intravenous form of midazolam to reduce patient anxiety prior to the nerve blocking procedure.

A peripheral nerve blocking procedure is a type of regional anesthesia performed in the preoperative area under ultrasound control, which blocks pain sensations originating from a specific area of ​​the body. The procedure is routinely performed for various ambulatory orthopedic surgeries, such as hip and knee arthroscopies and elbow or hand surgeries.

"Our results show that there are alternatives without medication to calm a patient before certain procedures, such as nerve blockages.We have put in place a new process in our outpatient surgery center to provide patients who wish to listen music access to disposable devices. " In the end, our goal is to offer music as an alternative to help patients relax during their perioperative period, "said Veena Graff, lead author of the study.

Research has shown that music can help reduce a patient's anxiety before surgery, but previous studies have focused primarily on music rather than an oral form of sedative drugs, which are not commonly used preoperatively.

In this study, the first to compare music medicine to an intravenous form of sedative drug was aimed at measuring the effectiveness of music to reduce the anxiety of a patient before proceeding to a block peripheral nervous system.

The team randomly badigned 157 adults to receive one of two options three minutes before peripheral nerve blockade: either a 1-2 mg injection of midazolam, or a pair of noise-canceling headphones playing the "Weightless" disc. from Marconi Union for eight minutes. song, created in collaboration with sound therapists, with harmonies, rhythms and carefully arranged bbad lines, designed specifically to calm listeners. The researchers evaluated the anxiety levels before and after using each method and found similar changes in anxiety levels in both groups.

However, the team noted that patients treated with midazolam had higher levels of satisfaction with their overall experience and fewer communication problems. Researchers attributed these results to a number of factors, including the fact that they used noise-canceling headphones, did not normalize the volume of music, and did not allow patients to choose music.