The Effect of Music on Comfort, Anxiety and Pain in the Intensive Care Unit: A Case in Turkey

Introduction: The intensive care unit often causes major distress and anxiety in patients. Music interventions have been used to reduce anxiety and distress and improve physiological functioning in medical patients. Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of music on pain, anxiety and comfort in patients who are in the intensive care unit (ICU) with the diagnosis of Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA). Methodology: Target population of this experimental study is all CVA patients who were hospitalized in the ICU of a state hospital located in Adana, Turkey. The participants were 72 patients and data were collected through Patient Identification and Vital Signs Form, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for identifying the level of pain, Faces Anxiety Scale and State Trait Anxiety Inventory for identfying the level of anxiety, and General Comfort Questionnaire for identifying the level of comfort. The data were analysed in SPSS for Windows package programming using paired samples t-test. Results: It was found that music increased the general comfort level and pO2. The systolic tension arterial, VAS score, State Anxiety Level, and Faces Anxiety Scale score decreased considerably with music therapy. Conclusions: Music is a type of therapy which contributes to the comfort of ICU patients by decreasing the pain, and anxiety.