Effect of music as a nursing intervention to reduce anxiety in coronary bypass and valve replacement surgery patients

The study investigated the effects of music to reduce anxiety and decrease intubation times in coronary artery bypass graft and valve replacement surgical patients in an acute care hospital. Anxiety can contribute to everything from heightened emotional stress, increased pain, blood pressure changes as well as lethal cardiac dysrhythmia and reduction in peripheral and renal perfusion. Research has shown, music as a therapeutic modality, relieves anxiety and pain in patients before and after surgery. What patients hear during surgery can be a rich source of anxiety. Wearing earphones during surgery will eliminate this source of anxiety. Music is reported to distract patients in an alien environment and provide a comforting and familiar effect in discomforting conditions. Soothing music can produce a hypometabolic response characteristic of relaxation in which autonomic, immune, endocrine, and neuropeptide systems can be altered. Similarly, music produces desired psychological responses and reduction in anxiety and fear.