Response to “Music Medicine” May Add Therapeutic Benefit During Closed Nasal Bone Fracture Reduction

Abstract

We read with interest the article Ortega et al 1 and thank the authors for bringing up the use of music as an anxiolytic and analgesic before performing nasal bone fracture reduction. We have interest in this area as we are also working in this field and want to share our thoughts related to this study. We agree music has appreciable anxiolytic potential in clinical medicine, especially when used for certain surgical procedures. 2 Similarly, its use as a complementary strategy for the relief of acute, procedural, and cancer/chronic pain in the medical setting has been well described. 3 The purpose of this letter, however, is to outline certain features in this study design that may have affected the results and overall study conclusion. We believe the lack of patient choice in terms of music preference, opting instead to use a preselected playlist, is one such fault. Although studies comparing the effects of patient-preferred music vs preselected music on patient anxiety levels perioperatively have varied in outcome, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that patients who choose their preferred music while undergoing a painful stimulus report significantly less pain intensity as well as improved pain tolerance and control over the perceived experience of pain. 4 Referring to this form of intervention as ''music therapy'' is misleading. It is rather a form of ''music medicine,'' defined as ''pre-recorded music listening experiences administered by medical personnel,'' whereas music therapy is classified as an intervention ''involving a relationship between client and therapist, a therapeutic process'' with a carefully planned music experience. 5