AB112. 58. The role of music in the waiting room of chronic pain outpatient clinics
Marguerite Collins1, Dominic Harmon2, Hilary Moss1
Background: Previous studies have examined how music can affect our entire body, brain and nervous system. There is some evidence of effectiveness in hospital settings. The aim of this mixed methods study was to determine the therapeutic effect of live music versus pre-recorded music, in a waiting room of a chronic pain clinic, in a hospital setting.
Methods: Two pain clinic waiting rooms were utilised for this study. In one pain clinic waiting room pre-recorded music was played from ‘Spotify’ playlists on a ‘Bose’ speaker over the duration of six clinics. Songlists were curated by authors 1 and 2. In the other pain clinic author 1, a MA music therapy student, attended six pain clinics playing live music on guitar, flute and voice. Choice of music was carefully curated, as were patient’s requests of certain songs. A self-administered questionnaire was administered to 200 consecutive adult patients attending the chronic pain clinics. The questionnaire contained 10 statements regarding the perceptions of pain and attitude towards the presence of music. One qualitative question was included to allow comments on the experience to be recorded alongside statistical results. Statistical analysis was performed for quantitative results and a thematic analysis undertaken on comments from patients (Braun and Clarke 2006). Reflexive journaling of the live music clinics was also undertaken by author 1.
Results: Preliminary results indicate that the majority of patients reported lowered levels of agitation, stress and lowered pain perception from both the live music and the pre-recorded. Participation in the study was high. One qualitative comment sums up the results to date: “Having a musician to talk to and request their favourite song from was a very nice distraction from their dreaded appointment”.
Conclusions: The information learned from this study can improve how music is used by people with chronic pain; hospital staff in pain clinics and staff in general hospital waiting rooms. The full results will be reported in this paper. This paper offers unique learning regarding the role of live music on perception of pain and hospital experience.
Keywords: Chronic pain; music; live music; waiting rooms
Cite this abstract as: Collins M, Harmon D, Moss H. The role of music in the waiting room of chronic pain outpatient clinics. Mesentery Peritoneum 2019;3:AB112.
