THE EFFECTS OF MUSIC LISTENING ON CHANGES IN SELECTED PHYSIOLOGICAL-PARAMETERS IN ADULT PRESURGICAL PATIENTS

The study was aimed at evaluating the effects of music an selected phy siological responses of 100 in-patients (72 men and 28 women), aged 20 to 60 years, awaiting non-orthopedic surgery Patients were randomly a ssigned to two groups (50 patients per group); control (C) and music l istening (M). In the morning of the day preceding surgery, the first m easures (arterial pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, skin temperatu re, and glucose count) and blood samples were taken. The patient was t hen told about the surgical procedure, Subsequent measures and blood s amples were taken every 20 minutes for a total period of I ht. During this time, patients in Group M listened to individually composed music programs from Walkman-type tape players, Information about surgical p rocedure proved to be a potent stressor as evidenced by highly signifi cant (p < 0.001) percent changes in arterial pressure (systolic-by 6.6 %, diasiolic-5.7%, and mean pressure-6.2%), heart rate (15.7%), cardia c output (14.0%), skin temperature (2.3%), and glucose (24.2%). At the end of the I hr period, mean values for all variables returned to ini tial values for patients in the music listening group, while values fo r the control group remained at about the stressor-induced levels, The total nan-invasiveness of music listening makes this method of reduci ng preoperative stress particularly attractive.