Musical pillow hits the right note with patients

People waiting in A&E for urgent surgery feel calmer and experience less pain if they are given a pillow that plays music, research suggests.

Fourteen men and 16 women waiting for surgery at a Danish hospital were invited to take part in the study.

Presenting her research at the European Emergency Medicine Congress, Lisa Antonsen, a nurse at Odense University Hospital, said: “We found that while using the music pillow, the patients experienced a decrease in pain from an average score of 4.8 to 3.7. Their relaxation improved from an average of 4.6 to 7.6, and their feeling of general well-being increased from an average score of 4.3 to 6.6.”