Scientific Evidence
Music & Wellness
The benefits on health outcomes are well documented: shortening postoperative recovery, reduced pain and analgesia needs, alleviating stress and depression, and overall emotional regulation. From Aristotle to the eponymous Florence Nightingale, this relationship between music and healing has long been recognized.
Institutions and researchers worldwide have documented the profound influence of music on the human experience, with a wealth of scientific evidence supporting the use of music as a therapeutic tool.Music in Surgery
In the operating room, music can reduce anxiety and stress for patients and improve concentration and performance for surgical teams.
Pain Management
Music can serve as a non-pharmacological intervention for pain relief, reducing the need for pain medication.
Mental Health
Music is effective in alleviating symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Enhanced Patient Experience
Music enriches the patient experience in healthcare settings, fostering a sense of comfort, connection, and emotional well-being.
What do studies say?
This systematic review indicates that music interventions compared to standard care may have beneficial effects on anxiety, depression, hope, pain, and fatigue in adults with cancer. […] We hope that this review may inform people with cancer, their caretakers, and physicians of the importance of therapies that work alongside medical treatment to improve the health, wellbeing, and recovery from cancer treatments.
Music is a safe, inexpensive, noninvasive intervention that is easy to implement and is well received by patients and providers. The music protocol resulted in improved patient anxiety, decreased procedure time, and decreased medication use during bone marrow procedures. All patients who used the music intervention indicated they would use it again. In addition to reducing subjective reports of pain and anxiety, music interventions can assist in stabilizing vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure during invasive procedures.
ML [Music Listening] based on our innovative iso-principle strategy… reduced the symptom burden in patients undergoing allogeneic- and inpatient autologous-SCT [Stem Cell Transplantation]. Music interventions based on the iso-principle facilitate mood change in patients listening to music. Beginning with music that reflects their initial mood state, individuals progress to specific pieces where musical elements (rhythm, melody, harmony, and others) gradually shift to achieve the desired positive mood. Music listening has been shown to have a beneficial effect on patients with cancer… [Our findings] analyzed the medium-term potential benefits of ML in terms of quality of life, anxiety, and depression. The implementation of music listening strategies is a promising non-pharmacological approach to improve the well-being and emotional regulation of patients during prolonged hospitalizations.
Music may be a safe and effective coping strategy for psychological management [in patients receiving chemotherapy]. Offering [music] immediately before chemotherapy is more effective on anxiety than… delivering during chemotherapy.
For cancer patients undergoing initial RT, music listening intervention significantly reduced anxiety symptoms… Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of music listening intervention in reducing anxiety symptoms, thereby potentially improving the quality of life of cancer patients undergoing RT. BSRS-5 and DT [Distress Thermometer] scores were significantly reduced in the experimental group post-RT… When music listening was discontinued, these scores rebounded. Relaxing music positively impacts the autonomic nervous system by reducing sympathetic nervous activity and increasing parasympathetic activity, leading to decreased heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate. Music also diverts the patient’s attention from pain and anxiety, eliminates the sense of being in an unfamiliar environment, and enhances adaptation to the surroundings. Integrating psychosocial interventions such as music listening into standard RT protocols can provide a more holistic approach to cancer care.
Results indicated that music listening may be beneficial for anxiety reduction in mechanically ventilated patients… This is considered a large and clinically significant effect. Music interventions have been used to reduce anxiety and distress and improve physiological functioning… [They] should be considered for anxiety and stress management [as] side effects of analgesia and sedation may lead to the prolongation of mechanical ventilation. Music listening, widely used for stress release in all areas of medicine, tends to be a reliable and efficacious treatment for those critically ill patients. It can abate the stress response, decrease anxiety during mechanical ventilation, and induce an overall relaxation response without the use of medication.
The main finding of this study was that music was more effective than midazolam in reducing the anxiety of patients before they underwent surgery. Music has no side-effects, whereas midazolam may have several, such as impaired cognitive function, paradoxical reaction, and respiratory depression. Unlike pharmacological pre-medication, music does not interfere with the patient’s ability to cooperate or communicate during the perioperative period. The relaxing effect of music was evident not only in the psychological scores but also in the high level of patient satisfaction reported in the music group.
Music intervention can be used to relieve preoperative anxiety, intraoperative restlessness, or postoperative pain. Past studies have pointed out that the use of music interventions in patients waiting for cardiothoracic surgery can significantly reduce anxiety. Providing music to postoperative patients can help the patient feel relaxed and more at home in the hospital.
“Music in the operating room can have beneficial effects on patients by decreasing stress, anxiety, and the demand for analgesic and anesthetic drugs. Music and surgery have been linked since antiquity… the therapeutic value of music has been recognized for centuries as a way to soothe the soul and aid the body’s recovery. For the surgical team, music can improve concentration, reduce fatigue, and create a more harmonious working environment, which may ultimately enhance surgical performance.
Listening to music is a regular practice for 63% of OR staff, and it has a positive effect on their efficiency and calmness during surgeries. Music in the OR may improve the surgeon’s performance by increasing concentration and decreasing the stress of the surgical team. Relaxing music, especially classical, was found to be the most beneficial in maintaining a calm atmosphere during complex procedures.
Music listening was found to significantly reduce systolic blood pressure and heart rate on the first and second postoperative days. Providing music to patients in the early stages of recovery can create a more pleasant environment and help patients focus on something other than their pain or the clinical surroundings. Nurses should offer music listening to surgery patients because of its potential benefit… it is a simple nursing intervention that requires no special equipment or long training.
In this study, music played before and during day surgery reduced patients’ stress response. Plasma levels of cortisol and NK lymphocytes, which increase during stress, were found to decrease during surgery in patients who listened to music. Anxiety scores were significantly lower in the music group both before and after surgery… the use of music should be encouraged to improve the quality of care in the surgical setting.
There is a robust body of literature, evaluated in systemic reviews and meta-analyses, supporting the use of music to help reduce peri-operative anxiety, postoperative pain, and reduce opioid analgesic usage among surgical patients.
Music listening, a complementary therapy, is a noninvasive, safe, familiar, and inexpensive modality that can be delivered easily and successfully with patients in both the hospital and postdischarge athome settings. Sufficient research has been conducted to indicate that music should be made available to patients undergoing operative procedures.