Listening to music after surgery seems to be an effective painkiller
People who listen to music after having surgery report lower levels of pain and require less morphine than those who don’t
By Carissa Wong
18 October 2024
Music could be a cheap way to help people be more comfortable after surgery
Dragos Condrea/Alamy
Listening to music after surgery seems to ease a patient’s pain and anxiety, which could be a cheap and easy way to reduce painkiller use.
“A lot of people, when they are awakening from anaesthesia, are lost,” says Eldo Frezza at California Northstate University College of Medicine. “They have anxiety or maybe they feel pain of the surgery.”
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Research has repeatedly shown that music can be calming, which prompted Frezza and his colleagues to investigate if it may help after an operation.
The team analysed the results of 35 studies that explored how listening to it immediately after surgery affected people’s pain, anxiety, heart rate and painkiller use.
Each study involved about 100 people, half of whom were asked to listen to music, of different genres, after abdominal or bone-related surgery. The studies varied in how long the participants did this, ranging from half an hour to until they were discharged.
