The tunes that help us heal: Listening to music can speed up patient recovery from surgery, research finds

According to research, listening to music can help speed up a patient’s recovery after surgery.

Experts have found that putting on some of your favorite songs – whether through headphones or a speaker – can reduce pain and anxiety after surgery.

It can also result in a patient needing less morphine and lead to a lower heart rate, which can be key to recovery.

The team from California Northstate University College of Medicine analyzed 35 existing studies on music and its role in helping people recover from surgery.

They found that simply listening to music after surgery generally had noticeable effects on patients during their recovery period.

Music can help ease the transition from the awakening phase to a return to normality and can help reduce the stress surrounding that transition (stock photo)

For example, they reported a 19 percent reduction in their pain levels and a 3 percent reduction in anxiety.

Patients who listened to music used less than half the amount of morphine compared to those who did not listen to music on the first day after their surgery.

And those who listened to tunes also experienced a lower heart rate (about 4.5 fewer beats per minute) compared to those who didn’t.

The researchers said this is important because keeping a patient’s heart rate within a healthy range helps improve recovery by allowing effective circulation of oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.

“When patients wake up after surgery, they sometimes feel very scared and don’t know where they are,” said Eldo Frezza, senior author of the study.

‘Music can help ease the transition from the awakening phase to a return to normality and can help reduce the stress surrounding that transition.’

Dr. Frezza and his co-authors noted that unlike some more active therapies such as meditation or pilates, which require significant concentration or movement, listening to music is a more passive experience and can be performed almost immediately after surgery without much cost or effort. patients can be integrated. .

“Although we can’t specifically say they have less pain, the studies have shown that patients experience less pain, and we think that is just as important,” said Shehzaib Raees, first author of the study.

The simple act of listening to music after surgery had noticeable effects on patients during their recovery period (stock photo)

The team said a reduction in cortisol levels – the body’s stress hormone – when listening to music could play a role in facilitating patients’ recovery after surgery (stock photo)

‘Listening to music allows you to distance yourself and relax. This way you don’t have to do much or focus and you can relax.’

The team said that a reduction in cortisol levels – the body’s stress hormone – when listening to music could play a role in facilitating patients’ recovery after surgery.

Further research will include evaluating the use of music in the surgical setting and in the intensive care unit.

Dr. Frezza said he would recommend listening to music you like after surgery, if you feel like it.

“We’re not trying to say that one type of music is better than another,” he added. ‘We think music can help people in different ways after surgery, because music can be comforting and give you the feeling that you are in a familiar place.’

The findings were presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in San Francisco.