Melodic intervention can help with pain relief, but it’s personal.
“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak,” or so sayeth ye olde 17th-century playwright and poet William Congreve.
Those are fairly big claims to be making, but on a more modest scale it does seem that a familiar melody or two can work wonders on the pain mitigation front, at least when it comes to minor medical procedures.
According to research published this month in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, a musical intervention can help relieve discomfort during activities such as the insertion of an intravenous cannula – but only if it’s the right type of music.
Scientists from the University Hospital Zürich, recruited more than 200 patients scheduled to undergo a non-emergency MRI of the brain, spine, or head and neck, which required them to have a contrast agent inserted into their veins with a cannula.
One quarter of the patients were a control group, meaning they listened to no music, while the other groups either listened to their favourite music, music specifically designed for relaxation or a Mozart sonata.
Before the procedure started, patients assigned to the “favourite music” group were asked to name an artist or song they would like to hear, and all patients were given a visual scale to describe their pain level from one to 10.
The participants were asked to rate their pain before and during the procedure, and twice again at 30 seconds and two minutes later.
Interestingly, what the Swiss boffins found was only favourite music resulted in significant pain reduction for patients with and without baseline pain, while a little touch of Wolfgang’s tinklings only worked for folks with pre-existing pain.
Patients who were listening to their favourite music experienced less pain both 30 seconds and two minutes after the cannula was inserted, the researchers said.
In a subgroup of patients who reported preexisting pain before cannulation, listening to their favourite music also reduced pain at the time of needle insertion, and listening to Mozart reduced pain two minutes after needle insertion.
Meaning playing so-called “relaxation music” during procedures provides no relief whatsoever.
The researcher suggested that this could be because relaxation music was usually characterised by a slow speed and low volume and did not show noticeable dynamics.
“These characteristics may have contributed to the patients disregarding relaxation music, which would explain the lack of pain relief,” study lead author Dr Meritxell Garcia Alzamora told media.
“In view of our results we will increase the application of music in venous punctures performed for radiological procedures, especially in anxious or claustrophobic patients,” Dr Garcia Alzamora added.
If your Back Page scribbler ever needs to get a cannula inserted, we will be asking to listen to a personal favourite, Neil Young’s 1972 classic “The Needle and the Damage Done” just to test how effective this music therapy malarkey really is.
Send your favourite cannulation canticles and story tips to Holly@medicalrepublic.com.au.
