An interventional study of Enhanced clinical environment and Other distraction in Surgery, sponsored by Royal College of Music. Completed at 1 site in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2015-10-27.
Sponsored by Royal College of Music · Not applicable, Interventional, and Basic science
Over 4.6 million operations are undertaken each year in England alone. Of these, many patients experience psychological distress, which has negative implications for patient recovery. Indeed, psychological stress, in particular both trait and state anxiety, anger and distress, has been linked with slower wound healing (Broadbent et al., 2003) and more complicated post-operative recovery (Johnston and Wallace, 1990).
However, pre-operative psychological interventions can have significant positive effects on components of of post-operative recovery (Navros et al., 2011; Weinman and Johnston, 1988). In particular, music has been studied in a series of randomised control trials as a way of reducing pre-surgical stress. Studies have shown the effects of music in reducing levels of stress hormones such as cortisol (Leardi et al., 2007) and reducing both heart rate and blood pressure, and have also found music to be more effective than benzodiazepine at reducing pre-surgical anxiety (Bringman et al., 2009).
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is a major surgical hospital, performing over 15,000 adult operations annually. Consequently, strategies to reduce patient anxiety and improve experience are amongst the hospital's priorities. A renovation of the Surgical Admissions Lounge is currently underway with plans to incorporate visual arts and music in waiting booths to relax and distract patients. When asked how relaxing they found the space, patients at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital involved in a public consultation rated the current unenhanced waiting area as 5.8/10, but 93% of patients said that relaxing music would help them feel less anxious. This project will test whether music and art in the SAL actively reduce adult patient stress compared to normal unenhanced waiting spaces, with a view to extending the arts interventions to other surgical waiting areas such as the day treatment centre if there are significant positive findings.
Stress can be measured via a number of methods, including both psychological and physiological. This study proposes to examine three signatures of stress in order to triangulate data and achieve a more comprehensive understanding of patients' stress response:
Royal College of Music is the lead sponsor of 5 studies on the registry; none are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
Enhanced Clinical Environment: participants wait for their operation in the enhanced audio-visual booth.
Other: Enhanced clinical environment
Participants wait for their operation in a booth with another distraction such as the news on television
Other: Other distraction
Participants wait for their operation in an ordinary, unenhanced booth
Surgical booths containing artwork and calming background music.
Such as newspaper, magazine or the news on television
Decrease in complexity of physiological response shown from ECG data collected via biosensing electrodes
Time frame: Over 30 - 90 minutes
Reduction in stress hormones and Th1/Th2 shift in immune biomarkers measured in saliva samples
Time frame: 30 - 90 minutes
Reduction in state anxiety measured in psychological scales
Time frame: 30 - 90 minutes
This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2015. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Royal College of Music