Music has often been used during painful medical procedures. A new study looked at the use of music during joint lavage to see if it would effect anxiety and pain.

Although the purpose of  a joint lavage is to decrease pain and improve function, the actual procedure is reportedly stressful and painful for the patient. This procedure is often used in persons with knee osteoarthritis.

Ottaviani et al. (2011) looked at the effect of recorded music in a randomized control trial of 62 patients. They measured pain and anxiety using a visual analogue scale and also measured heart rate and blood pressure.

The music intervention involved listening to recorded music before the procedure for 5 – 10 minutes, then during the entire procedure 10 – 20 minutes. The music was described as recored lyric music without headphones.

Results indicated significantly reduced perioperative levels of anxiety and pain in the music group. Also significantly better tolerability for the music group. Patients in the music group also had significantly lower heart rate.

This study was a relatively simple study showing improvements in anxiety and pain for this medical procedure. Unfortunately, there are few details given about the music. The only information provided is that it was lyrical and everyone listened to the same music. This means that the medical staff also listened to the music while performing this procedure (no headphones were used). The control received no stimuli, so it is possible that the treatment group did better because they received something. Lastly, it is unclear who selected the music – if there was a music therapist or musician on the research team.

As I was reading this, I couldn’t help thinking that if these authors had used the “Reporting Guidelines for Music-Based Interventions” (look under author guidelines for JMT), there would be enough information to replicate or at least consider the music selection when reading the results. It is great to see interventions using music, but more information would help the clinician/researcher come to better clinical decisions based on the research.

Reference:

Ottaviani, S., Jean-Luc, B., Thomas, B., & Pascal, R. (2011). Effect of music on anxiety and pain during joint lavage for knee osteoarthritis.Clin Rheumatol. 2011 Dec 30. [Epub ahead of print]. PMID: 22207250