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Music therapy as stress management
for pre-surgical stress
The response of the adrenal cortex to the stress of
receiving information about a surgery to be performed the following day
was studied in thirty four patients by monitoring changes in their
salivary cortisol levels .
Eighteen of those patients were subjected to an
individually selected one hour music programme, applied immediately
following receipt of the information, and the remaining sixteen patients
formed a reference group. Another ten patients, not awaiting surgery,
served as controls. Saliva was sampled before the stress and five more
samples were collected at fifteen minute intervals. The stress produced a
50% rise in salivary cortisol within fifteen minutes. Whilst the cortisol
levels of those patients not exposed to music gradually decreased, after
one hour they were still markedly higher than the initial level. However,
those patients in the music group showed a marked reduction in salivary
cortisol level and after one hour the relative decrease was similar to
that observed in control (non-surgical) patients.
The results therefore show that music therapy can
have a significant beneficial effect on alleviating stress levels for
patients who are given distressing information about imminent ly required
surgery. The study suggests that, those in authority should consider
introducing relaxing music into the cold, silent corridors and waiting
rooms of hospitals and health clinics.
Miluk-Kolasa B; Obminski Z; Stupnicki R;
Golec L. Effects of music treatment on salivary cortisol in patients
exposed to pre-surgical stress. Dept. of Surgery, Military Institute of
Aviation Medicine, Warsaw, Poland. Exp Clin Endocrinol (GERMANY) 1994, 102
(2) p118-20
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Music therapy to help anxiety in
patients undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopy
Patient anxiety can
negatively affect many surgical procedures. One such procedure is flexible
sigmoidoscopy in which the patient’s anxiety can, because of the
complicated and prolonged procedure periods, potentially result in
prematurely abortion of the surgery.
Music has been recognized through research as a
safe, inexpensive, and effective nonpharmaceutical method of inducing
relaxation and so researchers at the Cherry Point Naval Hospital, North
Carolina, USA set up anexperimental study to test the effects of music
therapy on 5fifty adults scheduled for outpatient sigmoidoscopy.
The control group received standard sigmoidoscopy
protocol., whilst the patients in the
experimental
group received the standard protocol with the addition of listening to
music throughout the procedure. State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
measurements were performed on all subjects before and after the
sigmoidoscopy. Physiologic recordings of heart rate and mean arterial
pressure were also recorded before and during the procedure to give
objective data.
The results revealed that those patients who
listened to self-selected music tapes during the procedure had
significantly decreased STAI scores , heart rates , and arterial
pressures when compared to the
control subjects. The researchers therefore concluded that music is an
effective anxiolitic (relaxing agent) which can be beneficial for patients
having to undergo flexible sigmoidoscopy surgery.
Palakanis KC; DeNobile JW; Sweeney WB;
Blankenship CL. Effect of music therapy on state anxiety in patients
undergoing flexible sigmoidoscopy. Cherry Point Naval Hospital, North
Carolina. Dis Colon Rectum (UNITED STATES) May 1994, 37 (5) p478-81
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This page was last updated on 07 July 2000 10:09:17 |
