Effects of music in intensive care medicine

Music not only plays an important role in everyone's life, it also has effects on heart rate, blood pressure and other physiological parameters. Although music can be interpreted as a subjective feeling, studies have shown that objective parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure and other physiological parameters are clearly influenced by music in various circumstances. Meanwhile, music is used in many medical disciplines, including the area of intensive care medicine. Pain, stress and fear in particular can be influenced positively, but music also plays a major role in patients with delirium and during weaning or surgical interventions. According to many available reports and good prospective studies, a positive effect of music has been observed in many medical disciplines and also in intensive care. Also in postoperative patients, whether from visceral surgery, cardiac surgery, orthopaedics or gynecology, to name just a few, positive effects of music with regard to the parameters pain, stress and anxiety have been demonstrated. Even if many physiological and pathophysiological relationships between the effects of music are not explained in detail, the cerebral processing of different impulses is decisive for the effects of music. The most benefit on health is visible with classic music, particularly in compositions of Bach, Mozart or Italian composers.