SynthesisThe British journal of surgery2018
Meta-analysis evaluating music interventions for anxiety and pain in surgery.
Synthesis in The British journal of surgery, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 6 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 164 papers, 20 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effect of Personalized Musical Intervention on Burden of Care in Dental Implant Surgery: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Effect of Music Therapy in Pain and Anxiety Management for Patients Treated With Stitches in Emergency Department
"Effects of Music Intervention Nursing in Advanced Life Support Ambulances: a Randomised Trial"
Music Interventions During Wide-Awake Hand Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial
The Influence of Music Choice on Pain Tolerance in the Context of Social Background in Healthy Volunteers: the MOSART Trial - a Randomized Controlled Trial
Duration of Music Interventions and PAiN Tolerance in Healthy Individuals: the DOMINANT Trial
Who cites it
164 citing papers in PubMed, 20 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The Number Needed to Treat for Music as a Medicine against Perioperative Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Anesthesia and analgesia · 2026Pooled it
- Music intervention for reducing anxiety in patients undergoing CT or MRI examinations: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Comparative meta-analysis of perioperative outcomes following robot-assisted renal surgery: KangDuo versus Da Vinci systems.Journal of robotic surgery · 2025Pooled it
- Robot-assisted versus open partial nephrectomy in renal tumor patients with chronic kidney disease: a meta-analysis of renal functional and perioperative outcomes.Journal of robotic surgery · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of music on pain in mechanically ventilated patients: A Systematic review.Nursing in critical care · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of music therapy on physiological response and anxiety in perioperative ophthalmic patients: a systematic review.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2025Pooled it
- Non-Pharmacological Interventions Before Cataract Surgery for Preoperative Anxiety: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nursing open · 2025Pooled it
- Technology-Based Music Interventions to Reduce Anxiety and Pain Among Patients Undergoing Surgery or Procedures: Systematic Review of the Literature.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2024Pooled it
- Research on music therapy from 2013 to 2022: a bibliometric and visualized study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Exploring the effect of music therapy as intervention to reduce anxiety pre- and post-operatively in CABG surgery: A quantitative systematic review.Nursing open · 2023Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Is music intervention effective in reducing anxiety and pain during breast biopsy procedure? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Pooled it
- Perception of auditory stimuli during general anesthesia and its effects on patient outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2021Pooled it
- Effect of music on patients with cardiovascular diseases and during cardiovascular interventions : A systematic review.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of dexamethasone on pain control after thyroid surgery: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2021Pooled it
- Music intervention for sleep quality in critically ill and surgical patients: a meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2021Pooled it
- Music intervention to relieve anxiety and pain in adults undergoing cardiac surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Open heart · 2021Pooled it
- The Effect of Perioperative Music on Medication Requirement and Hospital Length of Stay: A Meta-analysis.Annals of surgery · 2020Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The effect of music on simulated surgical performance: a systematic review.Surgical endoscopy · 2019Pooled it
104 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study aimed to evaluate anxiety and pain following perioperative music interventions compared with control conditions in adult patients.
methodsEleven electronic databases were searched for full-text publications of RCTs investigating the effect of music interventions on anxiety and pain during invasive surgery published between 1 January 1980 and 20 October 2016. Results and data were double-screened and extracted independently. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to calculate effect sizes as standardized mean differences (MDs). Heterogeneity was investigated in subgroup analyses and metaregression analyses. The review was registered in the PROSPERO database as CRD42016024921.
resultsNinety-two RCTs (7385 patients) were included in the systematic review, of which 81 were included in the meta-analysis. Music interventions significantly decreased anxiety (MD -0·69, 95 per cent c.i. -0·88 to -0·50; P < 0·001) and pain (MD -0·50, -0·66 to -0·34; P < 0·001) compared with controls, equivalent to a decrease of 21 mm for anxiety and 10 mm for pain on a 100-mm visual analogue scale. Changes in outcome corrected for baseline were even larger: MD -1·41 (-1·89 to -0·94; P < 0·001) for anxiety and -0·54 (-0·93 to -0·15; P = 0·006) for pain. Music interventions provided during general anaesthesia significantly decreased pain compared with that in controls (MD -0·41, -0·64 to -0·18; P < 0·001). Metaregression analysis found no significant association between the effect of music interventions and age, sex, choice and timing of music, and type of anaesthesia. Risk of bias in the studies was moderate to high.
conclusionMusic interventions significantly reduce anxiety and pain in adult surgical patients.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.