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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?

Reudink, M., Fu, V., Mackenbach, K., Jeekel, J., Slooter, G., & Dias, E. (2021). Implementation of perioperative music in day care surgery. Acta Chirurgica Belgica, 123(3), 281-289.

Perioperative music can have a beneficial effect on preoperative anxiety and postoperative pain, reduce intraoperative sedative and postoperative opioid medication requirement, and attenuate the physiological stress response to surgery in adult surgical patients. Therefore, it is an attractive non-pharmacological intervention that fits into current perioperative fast-track surgery patient care, especially since no deleterious effects of perioperative music are known. However, music is still not part of daily perioperative care.

Wal-Huisman, H., Dons, K., Smilde, R., Heineman, E., & Leeuwen, B. (2018). The effect of music on postoperative recovery in older patients: A systematic review.. Journal of geriatric oncology, 9 6, 550-559.

Music has a positive effect on the recovery of older patients after surgery, reducing pain and anxiety, increasing relaxation, cognitive functioning, and patient satisfaction, and four theoretical models were detected underpinning the effect of music on postoperative recovery.

Chen, G., Guo, L., Chuang, I., Kuo, H., Tsai, Y., & Liu, S. (2022). Effect of music intervention on lung expansion exercises after cardiothoracic surgery. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 11(6), 1589.

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.

Moris, D., & Linos, D. (2013). Music meets surgery: two sides to the art of “healing”. Surgical Endoscopy, 27, 719-723.

Music in the operating room can have beneficial effects on patients by decreasing stress, anxiety, and the demand for analgesic and anesthetic drugs.

Ullmann, Y., Fodor, L., Schwarzberg, I., Carmi, N., Ullmann, A., & Ramon, Y. (2008). The sounds of music in the operating room.. Injury, 39 5, 592-7 .

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.

Vaajoki, A., Kankkunen, P., Pietilä, A., & Vehviläinen-Julkunen, K. (2011). Music as a nursing intervention: effects of music listening on blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate in abdominal surgery patients.. Nursing & health sciences, 13 4, 412-8 .

Nurses should offer music listening to surgery patients because of its potential benefit.

Leardi, S., Pietroletti, R., Necozione, S., Ranalletta, G., & Gusto, B. (2007). Randomized clinical trial examining the effect of music therapy in stress response to day surgery. British Journal of Surgery, 94(8), 943-947.

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.

Laframboise-Otto, J., Horodyski, M., Parvataneni, H., & Horgas, A. (2021). A randomized controlled trial of music for pain relief after arthroplasty surgery. Pain Management Nursing, 22(1), 86-93.

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.

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