Excerpts from a New York Times article By ERIC NAGOURNEY A recent study reports patients who are allowed to hear music they enjoy during surgery that does not require general anesthesia need less sedation than ordinary. Writing in the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia, researchers from Yale and the American University of Beirut Medical Center described an experiment involving prostate surgery patients who were invited to take their favorite CD's to the hospital. Some heard the music over headphones. Others heard "white noise" intended to drown out the sounds of the operating room. And a third group heard neither. Anesthesia given through the spine ensured that none of the patients felt any pain in the area being operated on, a researcher, Dr. Zeev N. Kain of Yale, said. But pain, Dr. Kain said, is not the only problems in surgery with awake patients. "Nobody wants to lie on an operating table for four hours while they cut you," Dr. Kain said. Pain or no pain, he added, "you are certainly going to be very anxious and distressed." The 80 patients in the study, operated on in New Haven or Beirut, were given a device commonly used in such surgery allowing them to control their sedation level. The devices also let the researchers see how much sedative was used. Previous studies have shown that patients who listened to music over earphones need less sedation, but it was not clear whether the benefit was from the music or the fact that it blocked out the noises of the operating room. The type of music, Dr. Kain said, did not seem to matter, as long as the patient liked it. New York Times, June 7, 2005 Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.