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The Role of Music in Post-Surgical Patients

Swathy Elangovan, MBBS says music is life itself. It helps with pain, anxiety, and the recovery of post-surgery patients, too.

Music is life itself.

Music has been an integral part of our lives.

For some it is life itself.

 

Music has been used to produce desirable effects on the human health.

Musical training has proven to improve cognitive health (which includes perception, attention, memory, motor skills, language, visual, spatial processing) during development.

It has been used as a therapy for post traumatic brain injury patients and patients with dementia.

Musical practice and intellectual ability are related to the maturation of white matter pathways in the auditory motor system.

Musical training may transfer to executive functions by acting on auditory motor and cognitive control networks in the brain.

I can heal – yours truly, Music.

 

Musical training has proven to improve cognitive health during development. It has been used as a therapy for post traumatic brain injury patients and patients with dementia. Click To Tweet

 

Music has potential healing power.

It has been proven to reduce the physiological, emotional and mental effects of anxiety and distress.

Music has been believed to be a part of neurological reward pathway and stimulation of mesolimbic system.

Based on the results of a randomized control trial published by ‘The Lancet’’, ‘istening to music before and after a surgical procedure is beneficial to patients and can reduce anxiety, pain. There is also reduced need for medication.

Interestingly, there are surgeons who prefer to operate with music alongside in the OR (though most don’t).

Even a few anesthetists prefer a musical OR especially while administering general anesthesia (usually the experienced ones and that’s indeed cool!)

This practice was even more effective when the patients listened to music before surgery than after the surgery.

When patients selected that their own favorites be played, the benefits were even more promising.

 

there are surgeons who prefer to operate with music alongside in the OR (though most don’t). Even a few anesthetists prefer a musical OR especially while administering general anesthesia. Click To Tweet

 

Music therapy and music medicine

There are various forms in which music helps in post surgery patients.

In music therapy, a trained music therapist in a particular session (can vary from 30 to 40 minutes) takes care of the musical needs of post surgery patients; whereas in music medicine, doctors or nurses play recorded music, not involving a therapist directly.

The ultimate aim is to improve patient care and well-being .

Any trial or intervention will have its advantages as well as disadvantages.

Music helps in easing the discomfort of postoperative patients, for example, but there’s no direct impact on patients in terms of opioid painkillers, length of hospital stay etc.

 

In #music therapy, a trained music therapist in a particular session (can vary from 30 to 40 minutes) takes care of the musical needs of post surgery patients; whereas in music medicine, doctors or nurses play recorded music, not… Click To Tweet

 

Make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race- Michael Jackson.

It is now a debate, in research institutes worldwide. whether to include a musical session as a part of preop checklist for patients going to surgery.

Stanford’ SCOPE has mentioned the same.

Dr.Daniel Levitin, a neuroscientist and author of ‘ This is your brain on music’, states that music puts us in a better mood stimulating immune function and improving good health.

When the pitch, melody, rhythm, and tonality are in the right proportion we get wonderful music.

Let us make use of this wonder, in the most prudent way possible, to achieve milestones in healthcare.

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