Music can be an effective tool for reducing anxiety in patients before receiving anesthesia, on par with using sedatives, according to a study published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine.
Researchers from Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine randomly assigned 157 patients to receive either one of the following two options three minutes before undergoing the peripheral nerve block anesthesia procedure: an injection of the sedative midazolam or a pair of noise-canceling headphones playing an eight-minute song designed to calm listeners.
They recorded patients' anxiety levels before and after each option. They found that changes in anxiety levels were similar between the two groups.
"Our findings show that there are drug-free alternatives to help calm a patient before certain procedures, like nerve blocks," said Veena Graff, MD, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of clinical anesthesiology and critical care at Penn Medicine. "We've rolled out a new process at our ambulatory surgical center to provide patients who want to listen to music with access to disposable headphones."