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Stranger than Fiction

Listening to music can help a patient recover from surgery faster

Published:Thursday | October 24, 2024 | 8:00 AMBANG Bizarre

Hearing some of your favourite tunes following an operation can reduce levels of pain and anxiety after a procedure - resulting in less morphine being required by a patient and leading to a lower heart rate which is imperative for recovery.

A team of experts at California Northstate University College of Medicine analysed 35 existing studies on the subject and concluded that listening to music after surgery had a noticeable impact on recovery.

Patients who did so reported a 19 per cent reduction in pain levels and a three per cent decrease in anxiety.

Senior author of the study Eldo Frezza said: "When patients wake up after surgery, sometimes they feel really scared and don't know where they are.

"Music can help the transition from the waking up stage to a return to normalcy and may help reduce stress around that transition."

 

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