The effect of music therapy on chronic pain, quality of life and quality of sleep in adolescents after transthoracic occlusion of ventricular septal defect

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effect of music therapy on chronic pain, quality of life, and quality of sleep in adolescent patients after transthoracic occlusion of ventricular septal defects. Methods: Patients were divided into 2 groups based on whether they received music therapy: a control group and a music group. The music group received 30 minutes of music therapy every day for 6 months after surgery. Patients in the control group received standard treatment and had 30 minutes of quiet time every day for 6 months after surgery. The short-form McGill pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ), the SF-36 scale and the Karolinska Sleep Questionnaire (KSQ) was used as the evaluation tool for chronic pain, quality of life, and quality of sleep, respectively. Results: In terms of the degree of postoperative chronic pain, the Pain Rating Index (PRI) emotion item score in the SF-MPQ evaluation of the music group was significantly lower than that of the control group (1.6 ± 1.1 versus 2.2 ± 0.9). The role emotional (RE) scores of the SF-36 in the music group were significantly higher than that in the control group (77.35 ± 18.55 versus 42.66 ± 22.63). KSQ scores were significantly higher in the music group than in the control group for sleep status (4.1 ± 1.0 versus 3.3 ± 0.9), falling asleep (3.9 ± 1.1 versus 3.1 ± 1.0), and not feeling refreshed by sleep (3.6 ± 1.3 versus 2.7 ± 0.9) (P < .05). Conclusion: This study preliminarily showed that music therapy could effectively reduce patients’ chronic pain and improve quality of life and sleep after surgery. These results suggest that music therapy may be an essential therapy worth considering in managing patients’ postoperative recovery after cardiovascular surgery.

Updated Review of the Acoustic Modulation of Sleep: Current Perspectives and Emerging Concepts

“…While all previous studies tested healthy subjects, sleep improvements after music intervention could also be evidenced in patients suffering from fibromyalgia, 22 after cardiac surgery in adults 23 and adolescents 24 and in patients with insomnia symptoms. 25 The interventions were "delta-embedded" (p. 100) 2 Hz binaural beats on individual volume levels, 22 soft and soothing music including pop music, opera, folk songs and light music for 30 minutes 24 or Wholetones ® 2Sleep. 25 The latter is tuned and layered with a particular frequency to lull into a deep sleep.…”

“…Apart from one study lacking a control group, 22 studies compared music listening to a diversity of controls. Among them were nonintervention controls, 17,30 comparisons to other music pieces, 25,40 other auditory inputs such as audiobooks, 19,26,41 rest or quiet periods 16,23,24 or a combination of any other auditory stimulation and nonintervention. 26,27,41 All of them found beneficial effects on subjective sleep quality ratings even though the intervention duration ranged from a single 20-minute listening 19 to 30 minutes per day across 6 months.…”

“…26,27,41 All of them found beneficial effects on subjective sleep quality ratings even though the intervention duration ranged from a single 20-minute listening 19 to 30 minutes per day across 6 months. 24 Studies measuring objective sleep parameters mainly included comparisons of the acoustic intervention to measures after falling asleep without music 29,30,32 or to listening to other versions of the music 21 or other texts. 19,[33][34][35][36] One other study compared two pieces of music to white noise, 37 and another study compared it to breathing relaxation.…”

“…Other sound specifications, such as volume and tempo, are reported very scarcely and have not been systematically tested. If it was indicated at all in the papers, it was tuned to 42-50 dB 19,21 or self-chosen by the subjects and hence not controlled 24,39 and approximately 50 to 80 bpm. 18 In sum, it remains unclear which frequency or special effect of sound benefits sleep most.…”

“…Only a few subjects were allowed to choose from a small pool of music pieces. 18,24 Those were then, however, preselected as well and out of categories such as "light music, folk songs, opera and pop music" 24 or "classical, jazz, new-age and ambient" 18 (p.3). Whether any kind of personal music preference has an influence on the efficacy of the intervention was investigated in a group of Japanese students.…”