Abstract
Purpose: :
To investigate the effects of music therapy on anxiety, perceived pain and satisfaction of patients undergoing an intravitreal injection in the outpatient setting.
Methods: :
This is a prospective, randomized controlled study. 51 patients underwent intravitreal injection in an outpatient clinical setting were recruited and randomized to one of two groups - a group receiving music and a control group not receiving music. Each patient filled out an English version of the state-anxiety portion of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory before the procedure. For those in the music group, classical Mozart music from an internet radio site was then played for the patient while they waited for the procedure and during the procedure. After the procedure, all patients filled out the STAI again as well as an additional satisfaction survey. The main outcome measures were self-reported satisfaction and pain levels, as well as as anxiety derived from the STAI scores. The application to clinical practice is assessment of a low-cost intervention to increase patient comfort during a common and potentially unpleasant invasive procedure.
Results: :
A total of 51 patients participated with 27 patients in the Music Group and 24 patients in the Control Group. The mean ages for the Music Group and Control Group were 72 and 74, respectively. The mean number of previous intravitreal injections in the same eye for the Music Group and Control Group were similar. There was a trend toward a decrease in anxiety from before to after the injection in the Music Group as compared to the Control Group (p = 0.1125). Both the Music Group and Control Group were similar in their reported levels of pain during the procedure (p = 1.00) Furthermore, Music Group (88%) wants music in the future more than the Control group (54%, p = 0.0096).
Conclusions: :
Classical music before and during an intravitreal injection has a trend to decrease anxiety in patients without decreasing perceived pain. Patients who had music during intravitreal injections desire to have music in future injections.
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • choroid: neovascularization • vascular endothelial growth factor