29 May 2013

An innovative study led by a team from Sherbrooke revealed that patients in the intensive-care unit who listened to classical music needed less medication.

As part of the music project, Olivier Lesur — an intensivist at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke (CHUS – Sherbrooke University Hospital Centre), researcher at the Centre de recherche clinique Étienne-Le Bel (CRCELB – clinical research centre), and professor at the Université de Sherbrooke — had intubated and mechanically ventilated patients listen to classical music for one hour twice a day while they were hospitalized in intensive care. The clinical study showed that they tended to need less analgesic medication and fewer sedatives, even though their vital signs did not change.

Because the slow tempo of the music was similar to the heart rates of these patients, it lowered their stress levels and improved their well-being.

The music project was led by Professor Lesur; Nicole Gallo-Payet, a researcher at the CRCELB and professor in the Université de Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Dr. Geneviève Beaulieu-Boire; and Dr. Solange Bourque.

The study’s results were published in the Journal of Critical Care.

Source: Université de Sherbrooke