It’s no question that a good song can improve your mood or that an audiobook can make a long plane or car ride more enjoyable, but did you know that these audio entertainment sources have been shown to reduce pain as well? A recent study from Northwestern Medicine investigated the potential of music and audiobooks to reduce postoperative pain in children.
Oftentimes, opioid analgesics are administered to patients after surgery to help with pain. However, the use of these pain medications is limited for children because they can cause breathing problems, creating an additional issue of postoperative pain for pediatric patients.
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The study analyzed 54 pediatric patients ages 9 to 14 who underwent major surgery. The participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: 30 minutes of music chosen from a playlist of a variety of popular music, 30 minutes of audiobooks of their choosing, and 30 minutes of silence. All three conditions took place after surgery, and the patients’ pain levels were assessed using a pain scale before and after treatment.
The group that listened to silence experienced no change in pain. However, the patients who listened to music or audiobooks experienced significantly less pain afterward, regardless of how much pain they had initially.
Santhanam Suresh, an author of the study, hypothesizes that listening to audio creates a form of distraction, lessening the experience of pain:
“There is a certain amount of learning that goes on with pain. The idea is, if you don’t think about it, maybe you won’t experience it as much. We are trying to cheat the brain a little bit. We are trying to refocus mental channels on to something else.”
Audio therapy is a fun, inexpensive, and easy way for kids to manage their pain after a major surgery. There are no side effects, and patients can continue it on their own. These results are something for hospitals to take into consideration when treating patients.
Feature Image Source: Headphones by Nickolai Kashirin
