Music therapy as an alternative to control psychomotor agitation and sedation of the patients with invasive mechanical ventilation

Abstract

Introduction: music therapy is promoted as a tool to handle certain health issues. Objective: to specify the effect of music therapy in sedated patients with invasive mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit at the General Teaching Hospital ¨Dr. Agostinho Neto¨ in Guantanamo during the year 2018. Method: from January to December, 2018, a pre-experimental application of music therapy was undertaken. 40 patients were part of the experiment, during the process of weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation. Patients were randomly selected to the studied group (n=20) or to a control group (n=20), the first being treated with music therapy while the last was not. Modifications in heart rate, respiratory rate, mean arterial pressure, sedative dose and levels of psychomotor agitation were taken into account; also listening to professionals´ and patients´ opinions on the treatment. The information gathered was sorted in absolute frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation, and the differences were evaluated with Student´s t-distribution. Results: music therapy improved heart and respiratory rate, mean arterial pressure and helped to decrease the use of sedative doses; besides, it improved the agitation in the group studied (p<0.05). Patients and professionals both gave favorable opinions about the treatment and its ability to control the agitation (p<0.05). Conclusions: music therapy constitutes a non-pharmacological form of therapy that proves effective to control agitation in patients during the process of weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation.

Keywords

• musicoterapia
• agitación
• sedación
• ventilación mecánica invasiva