Music may reduce anxiety during invasive procedures in adolescents and adults

Abstract

DESIGN: A block randomised controlled trial was conducted. INTERVENTION: Patients in the music (test) group listened to selected sedative music using headphones throughout the root canal treatment procedure. The control group subjects wore headphones but without the music. OUTCOME MEASURE: Anxiety was measured before the study and at the end of the treatment procedure. Patients' heart rate, blood pressure and finger temperature were measured before the study and every 10 min until the end of the root canal treatment procedure. RESULTS: The results revealed that there were no significant differences between the two groups for baseline data and procedure-related characteristics, except for gender. The subjects in the music group, however, showed a significant increase in finger temperature and a decrease in anxiety score over time compared with the control group. The effect size for state anxiety and finger temperature was 0.34 and 0.14, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Relaxing music administered through headphones to subjects during root canal treatment decreased the procedure-related anxiety of the patients and significantly increased finger temperature, but does not significantly affect blood pressure and heart rate over the procedure.