The effect of therapeutic listening on anxiety and fear among surgical patients: randomized controlled trial.
Ana Cláudia Mesquita Garcia, Talita Prado Simão-Miranda, Ana Maria Pimenta Carvalho and 3 others
PMID 30110103WHAT IT FOUND
A single 30-minute session of therapeutic listening did not reduce preoperative anxiety or fear in colorectal cancer patients compared to a control group.
The intervention failed to outperform standard care, with no significant differences in state anxiety, surgical fear, or physiological markers like cortisol and heart rate between the groups after the session.
Key findings
01Therapeutic listening did not cause significant differences between the intervention and control groups in state anxiety, surgical fear, or physiological variables after the intervention.
02The control group, which received only data collection interactions without the listening intervention, showed significant reductions in salivary cortisol, heart rate, and surgical fear from pre- to post-intervention.
03The intervention group showed no significant changes in any of the measured variables from pre- to post-intervention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was open-label, meaning participants knew whether they were receiving the intervention or acting as controls, which can influence self-reported outcomes. The intervention consisted of only one 30-minute session, which may have been too brief to process emotions or produce lasting effects, as suggested by the authors. The sample size was small (50 participants), which limits the power to detect smaller differences. The control group received attention during data collection, which may have provided a therapeutic effect that masked any additional benefit of the listening intervention.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP). The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that therapeutic listening is ineffective in all contexts or that nurses should not listen. The null result applies specifically to a single 30-minute session in preoperative colorectal cancer patients. The control group's improvements suggest that the interaction itself is valuable, and the authors note that longer or more frequent sessions might yield different results.