Rihanna, Taylor’s songs ease children’s post-surgery pain

Research infers effects of music supersede pain-relieving effect of medicines.

A new study has found that listening to songs by pop stars, such as Rihanna and Taylor Swift, leads to a significant decrease in pain for children who have gone through major surgeries, reported Deccan Chronicle.

Led by paediatrics at Northwestern Medicine, the research inferred that music and audio books could serve as a means to control post-surgical pain. This is because drugs such as opioid analgesics, given to children after surgery, result in breathing problems and make it difficult for caretakers to control their dosage.

Children between the ages of nine and 14 were given a playlist of top music in different genres, including pop, country, rock and classical, to choose from. Short audio books were another option in the study. Researchers found that music chosen by children on their own supersedes the pain-relieving effect of medicines as it distracts the brain, making it refocus on something else. It also helps avoid the risky side-effects of opioid drugs.

Dr Santhanam Suresh, a senior author of the study said, “Audio therapy is an exciting opportunity and should be considered by hospitals as an important strategy to minimise pain in children undergoing major surgery.” He added, “This is inexpensive and doesn’t have any side effects on children,” reported sciencedaily.com.

Suresh conducted the study with his daughter, Sunitha Suresh, who designed the research when she was a biomedical engineering student at Northwestern’s McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science with a minor in music cognition. The paper is published in the journal Paediatric Surgery.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2015.

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