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Music could replace medication as stress reliever in invasive cardiac catheterization
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Music may relieve anxiety and stress for patients undergoing elective invasive cardiac catheterization and serve as an alternative to pharmacotherapy, according to new data published in The American Journal of Cardiology.
“Patients undergoing invasive cardiac catheterization experience stress and pain during the procedure,” Ramin Ebrahimi, MD, and Weiyi Tan, MD, both from the department of medicine, cardiology section at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, wrote in the study background. “To relieve anxiety and provide analgesia, most operators use medications such as benzodiazepines and opioids for conscious sedation.”
Although previous studies showed that music therapy leads to reduced stress and anxiety levels when utilized as an adjunct to standard pharmacotherapy in patients with heart disease during cardiac procedures, no prior studies have examined the effect of music in lieu of standard anxiety and pain medications in such patients, Ebrahimi and Tan wrote.
To evaluate the role of music as an alternative to pharmacotherapy for conscious sedation during elective invasive cardiac catheterization, Ebrahimi and Tan conducted a retrospective data analysis of patients who had music therapy vs. patients who had IV sedation/analgesics. Options were selected based on each patient’s preference.
One hundred sixty-one patients were analyzed, 49 in the music arm and 112 in the control arm.
The baseline characteristics between the two cohorts were similar, but the rates of drug addiction, back pain, PTSD and hearing loss were higher in the control group vs. the music arm.
Of the patients in the music group, 86% received no sedation or analgesia in the periprocedural period compared with 26% in the control group.
The average doses of midazolam (0.7 mg vs. 0.1 mg, P < .0001) and fentanyl (39.5 µg vs 3 µg, P < .0001) were higher among patients in the control group vs. patients in the music arm.
Eighty-six percent of patients who received music therapy said they believed that music was helpful in reducing their stress/anxiety levels.
“Utilizing music during [invasive cardiac catheterization] may serve as an alternative/adjunct to standard pharmacotherapy in reducing anxiety and benzodiazepine/opioid use,” Ebrahimi and Tan wrote. “These findings warrant further studies to confirm these results and evaluate potential mechanistic models.”– by Dave Quaile
Disclosures: Ebrahimi and Tan report no relevant financial disclosures.
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