Music helps patients manage pain and improve recovery: Studies

Hold the pain meds. Don't be surprised if your recovery nurse grabs a ukulele instead of a

Tylenol. For the last 16 years that I played music, I probably played for about 2,000 patients

already. I've been counting on my finger how many weeks and how many patients a week

about 2,000 patients. That's a lot. Rod Selesai is a nurse in the recovery unit

at University of California San Diego Health. While following medical protocol with medication dosages

he is also known to honor a musical request or two. I always find that music and pain medication works side by side

to achieve a really good level of comfort. Once they got some pain medication

they started to relax, and then when you instill some music in between

then it's actually a different level of comfort that they experience. One recent study shows that music not only affects pain tolerance

the genre of music may also play a significant role. However, as researchers dug further, they found the genre is more about personal preference

If a patient is calmed by classic rock, then classic rock is the genre that helps with pain

With all music proven to be positive, what's important is that the patient enjoys it

Patient Richard Huang welcomed the music therapy I was expecting a typical nurse that just comes in and do his or her job and that it And Rod came in here with a whole different attitude and atmosphere

It kind of stunned me a little bit, but it actually helped me not think about the pain

but more focus on how to recover. Studies show when patients choose the music and listen intently, acute pain begins to dull

Acute pain is felt when pain receptors in a certain part of the body send signals to the brain

When you play music and they start to tap their hands, maybe move their foot to the beat

and then they kind of adjust their position into the pillow, So you know that it's working because they're kind of trying to find a position where they could feel more comfortable and let the music sink in

And that for me, including the changes that you see on the monitor about the patient's heart rate and blood pressure

and the fact that, okay, their breathing is also slowing down. Actually, those are the physiological signs that tell me that this type of therapy is working

The exact reasoning between the correlation is still unknown. Some researchers say it may be due to familiar songs activating more memories and emotions

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Jack Henry