Music therapy is defined as the use of music by health care professionals to promote healing and enhance quality of life for their patients. Music therapy may be used to encourage emotional expression, promote social interaction, and relieve symptoms.3 While music therapy does not cure disease, there is much in the literature that reviews the capacity of music therapy to reduce some symptoms, aid in healing, improve physical movement, and enrich a patient’s quality of life.3 At our facility, we have witnessed music therapy’s positive results on patient anxiety levels during angiography and angioplasty. Often discomforts or anxieties are due to the anticipation of pain during the process of sheath insertion, immobilization, injection of contrast material, and balloon inflation.1 While there are medications that are customarily given to patients to reduce their levels of anxiety and a local anesthesia is administered at the sheath site, these medications do not always alleviate the anxiety of patients during the procedure. As such, it is worthwhile to explore unconventional modes of supportive interventions that can help the patient cope during a cath lab procedure. The employment of music therapy is not only an inexpensive recourse, but by appealing to the cognitive, affective and sensory nature of the patient1, music therapy offers a safe and effective means to improve the overall patient experience of a cardiac catheterization. Because the approach is safe, inexpensive, and well recognized by patients, the employment of music therapy is an acceptable option for medical procedures that necessitate or require a reduction in patient anxiety levels.
Music was used in ancient times to improve the health and wellness of human beings. The renowned 6th century Greek philosopher Pythagoras said that music, together with proper diet, restores the harmony of the human body and soul.4 In the Renaissance era, music was also lauded as a tool to effect changes in heart rate, respiration, digestion, and blood pressure.4 Even Florence Nightingale, who laid down the foundations of professional nursing, adhered to the use of music to promote the healing process of injured soldiers in Crimea during the war.4