Music Interventions for the Treatment of Preoperative Anxiety

Abstract

The majority of surgical patients feel anxious prior to anesthesia or sedation. Health care professionals recognize that this preoperative anxiety can take its toll on the physiological and emotional states of patients, potentially resulting in an increased need for sedatives or anti-anxiety medications, difficulty with anesthesia or sedation, more severe postoperative pain and subsequent need for pharmaceutical interventions, and delayed recovery and discharge. Music interventions are an effective, noninvasive way to relieve and prevent the negative effects of preoperative anxiety.