A new report highlights the significant role music can play in easing post-surgery recovery, showing that listening to music helps reduce stress, pain perception, and medication reliance. Presented at the recent American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress, the findings reveal that music can slow heart rate, reduce stress, and create a comforting atmosphere that promotes healing.
The study analyzed 35 research papers covering 3,736 individual cases, focusing on the therapeutic power of music on both mental and physical recovery. Patients who listened to music needed less than half the morphine typically required, suggesting music effectively eases discomfort and anxiety. “Music can help ease the transition from waking up after surgery to a state of normalcy, helping reduce stress around that transition,” explains Eldo Frezza from California Northstate University College of Medicine.
Music therapy’s benefits go beyond pain management, contributing to overall mental relaxation. “While we can’t confirm patients are in less physical pain, they perceive their pain to be less intense,” says researcher Shehzaib Raees. This perception shift may be critical to quicker recovery and a more positive post-surgical experience.