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Music therapy linked with reduced postoperative pain after spine surgery
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A recently published study showed music therapy provided benefits for patients recovering from spine surgery.
“The study demonstrates that music therapy, when integrated into medical treatment of post-surgical pain, can increase comfort and positively impact pain scores reported by individuals undergoing spinal surgery,” John F. Mondanaro, MA, LCAT, MT-BC, CCLS, study author from Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, told Healio.com/Orthopedics. “These findings implicate the positive relationship between integrative care that addresses the whole person and positive treatment outcomes, and specifically how music therapy as a modality of choice can effectively address individual needs across multiple domains.”
Sixty patients who underwent either anterior, posterior or anterior-posterior spine fusion surgery participated in the study. Thirty patients in the control group received only standard care, consisting of medical and nursing care with scheduled pharmacologic pain intervention. The other 30 patients, in addition to standard care, received music therapy in the form of one 30-minute session during an 8-hour period within 72 hours after surgery. The primary outcome measure was VAS pain ratings. The secondary outcome measures were scores the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) and the Color Analysis Scale (CAS).
Researchers found a significant difference in the degree and direction of change in VAS pain ratings between the experimental and control groups. While VAS pain ratings increased slightly in the control group, these scores decreased significantly in the experimental group. Investigators found no significant difference between the groups in HADS anxiety, HADS depression, or TSK scores. Patients in both groups experienced a slight increase in HADS anxiety, a slight decrease in HADS depression and minimal changes in TSK. – by Abbey Bigler
Disclosure: Mondanaro reports no relevant financial disclosures.
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