Music Therapy in the ICU as an Accessory Method for Surgical Stress Reduction

Background: The intensive care unit is a comparatively stressful environment. Music as a therapeutic intervention has been demonstrated to promote health in surgical patients, and may be used as an adjuvant intervention for the management of surgical stress. Aim: Investigation of the effectiveness of classical music in the ICU in the immediate post-operative period for the reduction of surgical stress in patients undergoing general surgical procedures of high or intermediate severity. Method: The study sample consisted of 70 patients, with a 100% response rate, divided into two equal groups, one of which had music therapy intervention, while the other received routine care. For the intervention group classical music was provided through headphones from CD players for 55 minutes after admission to the ICU. All the patients of both groups had their vital signs (heart rate, respiratory rate and arterial blood pressure) recorded on admission to the ICU and one hour and two hours after admission. Demographic data and other clinical characteristics were documented. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) v. 19.0. Results: The participants were 38 men (54.3%) and 32 women (45.7%), of whom 59 (84.3%) had been receiving no medication preoperatively for the management of hypertension or cardiac arrythmia while11 (15.7%) were on cardiovascular medication. No participant had any intraoperative complications. The patients receiving musical intervention demonstrated a greater reduction than the non-intervention group in their vital sign values between admission to the ICU and one hour after admission, and specifically in heart rate (p<0.001), respiratory rate (p<0.001), systolic arterial pressure (p<0.005) and mean arterial pressure (p<0.005). The greatest changes in the music intervention group were observed in the respiratory rate, the mean arterial pressure and the systolic arterial pressure. Conclusions: It is apparent that music intervention in the immediate post-operative period for patients undergoing general surgery may be used as an adjuvant therapeutic tool for the normalization of vital signs and reduction of surgical stress.