Introduction:

Magnetic resonance is an ideal imaging method in the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases; however, the majority of patients refer this process as if they were in an unknown environment which provokes them anxiety, resulting in constant changes in their vitals.

Objective:

To compare the level of anxiety (AL) of the heart-ill adult after an intervention with music-therapy following a magnetic resonance study.

Materials and methods:

This is a comparative, prospective and transversal study, with a simple aleatory probabilistic sample (N = 31) divided in two groups: G1 with n = 14, and G2 with n = 17, including patients ≥ 15 years old of both sexes. The STAI instrument was applied before and after the music-therapy session using 10 items for demographic data, vital signs, and symptomatology, and 20 items to estimate the AL, with answers based on a Likert-type scale with: 0 = not at all, to 3 = a lot, and a total scale score where, <24 = low level of anxiety, 24-38 = medium level of anxiety, and >28 = high level of anxiety. The group G1 listened to classical music, while the group G2 listened to the music of their choice for 30 minutes the sound level was kept between 15 and 24 decibels before the study and the duration of the study (≥ 20 minutes). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and Pearson, Spearman, U Mann Whitney, Student’s t, and paired T test, p < .05.

Results:

Music-therapy reduced the cardiac frequency (74.36 vs. 69.07, p = .01), the respiratory frequency (16.29 vs. 12.93, p = .001), and the systolic arterial tension (127.21 vs. 117.21, p = .01), in both groups. Patients in G2 showed a greater AL reduction compared to those in G1 (26.88 vs. 23.24, p = .037).

Conclusions:

Selected music-therapy in patients undergoing magnetic resonance has shown to be an effective intervention method to modify specific physiological, emotional, and behavioral states of these patients.