Using music to calm the nerves before an operation

An anaesthetist prepares a patient for surgery with sedatives in this filepic, but what if music could achieve the same effect?

New American research has found that music may calm the nerves before the use of regional anaesthesia just as effectively as medication.

Carried out by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, the new study looked at whether listening to calming music could be as effective for reducing anxiety as midazolam, the sedative drug commonly used before regional anaesthesia.