Music Makes Assisted Breathing Easier

A new review led by Joke Bradt of the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University in Philadelphia and former researcher at Temple University's Arts and Quality of Life Research Center, concluded that patients who need assistance to breathe through mechanical ventilation, can benefit from listening to music.

Since mechanical ventilation often causes a lot of stress and anxiety in patients, music's therapeutic properties come in handy, as the sound of music was found to relax patients and reduce the amount of complications.

The researchers assessed data from eight trials on 213 patients, who all suffered from different conditions, including trauma injuries, cardiac disease or lung disease, and all received mechanical breathing support via mouth, nose, or tracheotomy.

In seven of those trials, prerecorded music was played to the patients, and in the eighth trial, a trained music therapist played live music with a tempo that matched the respiratory rate of the patient.

The results showed that on average, music reduced anxiety, as well as heart and breathing rates, but had no effect on blood pressure.

Bradt said that “these results look promising, but we need more trials to strengthen the evidence and we would certainly be interested in seeing more research on live music interventions provided by trained music therapists.

“However, because music listening is an easy treatment to provide, we do recommend that music be offered as a form of stress management for critically ill patients.”

Respiratory-assisted patients can experience breathlessness, frequent suctioning, inability to talk, uncertainty regarding surroundings or condition, discomfort, isolation from others and fear, and all of this can contribute to high levels of anxiety.

Reducing anxiety through medications would only lead to increased hospital stays and extra medical costs, so an alternative is more than welcomed.

“With all these factors making mechanical ventilation a highly stressful experience, it is exciting that music may provide a way to reduce anxiety in these patients without costly side effects,” said Bradt.

The only small inconvenience on this review was the fact that there was little information about the specific kind of music that proved beneficial.

Bradt said that “except for mentioning general styles, such as classical and easy listening, most of the trials made no mention of the music selections used.

“In future trials, recording more detailed information about the music would help clinicians make better informed decisions about music selections.

“We recommend that medical personnel providing music to patients consult with a music therapist to understand what type of music may be best for a particular patient.

“Likewise, music therapists need to collaborate with medical personnel to carefully monitor the patients' physiological responses to the music.”

The review was published in The Cochrane Library, e!ScienceNews reports.