An interesting article from the New York Times.
Dr C Conrad, a senior surgical resident at Harvard with a doctorate in music philosophy, and colleagues carried out a simple study involving 10 ICU patients. Just after the sedation was lifted, 5 were given gentle piano music for 1 hour while 5 heard nothing.
They found that those patients listening to music showed reduced BP and heart rate, less need for pain medication and 20% drop in epinephrine and interleukin-6 ( 2 important stress hormones). They also had a 50% increase in pituitary growth hormone.
Previous research has shown growth hormone generally rises with stress and falls with relaxation, Dr Conrad argued that the growth hormone may reduce the levels of stress hormones that produce inflammation that in turn causes pain and raises BP and heart rate.
Experts said the study suggests a rise in growth hormone may dampen inflammation and stress responses although they did not buy in the proposed mechanism.
Source: "Overture for growth hormone: requiem for interleukin-6?" Critical Care Medicine. 2007 Dec;35(12):2709-13 ( f/t via Athens)
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