Let the music sound!

Hola a tod@s, mis queridos amig@s.

Music is part of our lives, that is an irrefutable fact. We like it, it distracts us, helps us, calm us, it brings back memories. There is not a single day that we don’t listen it in one way or another.

Published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2013, the article Effects of Patient-Directed Music Intervention on Anxiety and Sedative Exposure in Critically ill Patients Receiving Mechanical teaches us that associated anxiety of patients intubated and connected to mechanical ventilation can be alleviate with alternative arrangements to sedation, as music,

They enrolled 373 patients of 12 ICUs in Minnesota who were receiving ventilatory support, and randomized in three groups: receiving music therapy when the patient wanted, using headphones to avoid the noise or the usual management of ICUs. The patients who were in the group of listen to music, made it for an average of 80 minutes a day; those who used headphones to avoid noise, 34.

In their analysis, patients who listened to music had a scale of anxiety 19.5 points lower compared to the usual management, and declined medical treatment with sedatives to both frequency and dose (a reduction of 36 and 38% respectively).

The authors conclude that listening to music if you are receiving ventilatory support reduces anxiety compared to the usual management.