New research shows that listening to live or recorded music reduces anxiety for women undergoing surgical breast biopsies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The findings are from a two year study conducted with 207 patients.
"We discovered that anxiety levels dropped significantly from pre-test to post-test in patients who heard one preferred song of either live or recorded music before surgery," said lead author Jaclyn Bradley Palmer, music therapist at University Hospitals of Cleveland in Ohio, US.
For the purpose of the study, patients were assigned to one of three study groups. One group listened to preferred live music before surgery, one listened to preferred recorded music, and one was not exposed to any music before surgery.
The findings showed that both live and recorded preoperative music therapy interventions reduced anxiety by 43 and 41 percent respectively. This was more than the usual preoperative management by 28 and 27 points. No significant difference in anxiety was observed between live and recorded music. Overall, it was evident that music, delivered in any form, had a significant impact on reducing the patient's preoperative anxiety.
A possible explanation for this may be the fact that music touches our brain and our body's natural opiates are released through auditory stimulation.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Source: Journal of Clinical Oncology
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