The Effect of Music Therapy on Pain Level and Analgesic Consumption

Pain is a common condition experienced by patients in long-term health care, rehabilitation and acute situations, due to various surgical interventions and invasive procedures, and postoperative pain is an important symptom experienced by patients during the surgical recovery process. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as an unpleasant emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage (Lok, Ibrahim and Sidani 2020; Çavdar and Akyüz 2017; Martin-Saavedra, Vergara-Mendez, Talero-Gutiérrez 2018). Orthopedic surgical interventions are considered to be one of the most painful surgical procedures, and pain control requires a multifaceted approach that includes non-pharmacological techniques (Allred et al. 2010). Music therapy, which is one of the non-traditional treatment methods, is used to reduce pain (Nilson 2008). Music can easily be included in nursing care because it is applied without the physician's request and causes very little legal and ethical concerns (Simcock et al. 2008). However, due to the lack of awareness about the effectiveness of music therapy, it is not often used as an intervention. Inadequate pain control causes a decrease in patient satisfaction and deterioration of the healing process (Lukas 2004). Therefore, this study was planned as a randomized controlled experimental study to determine the effect of music therapy on the pain level of patients undergoing orthopedic surgery.