Music Helps Reduce Pain During IV Placement

Music can have a positive effect on children undergoing intravenous (IV) treatment, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton, Canada, randomly told 42 children, aged between 3 and 11 to listen to loud if they wished to, while IV needles were inserted into their arm. They measured the children's distress from a scale of 0 to 23.5.

Each child was played the same music. Children who did not listen to music had a two-point increase in pain scores, while scores remained the same for children in the music group - 1.1.

"Based on the research I've seen, the review of the literature we've done and our study, music has the potential to benefit and - at worse - won't do any harm," Lisa Hartling, study author and PhD, University of Alberta, told Reuters Health.

"Music may have a positive impact on pain and distress for children undergoing intravenous placement," the researchers wrote. "Benefits were also observed for the parents and health care providers."

The study also found that there were no significant changes in behavioral distress before the procedure to immediately after it, with and without controlling for potential confounders.

Health care providers were of the opinion that the procedure performance was easier for children in the music versus the standard-care group (76% vs. 38% ). Health care provider satisfaction with IV placement was higher for the music versus the standard-care group (86% vs. 48%).