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In a first-of-its-kind trial, scientists have found that playing a Mozart lullaby may help reduce the pain experienced by newborn babies undergoing medical procedures. The study involved 100 infants in a randomised, blinded clinical trial and the results were published in Pediatric Research.

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A team of scientists from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia worked alongside doctors to conduct the trial on the babies at a community hospital in the Bronx, New York.

During a standard heel prick procedure, before taking the blood, just over half of the infants were subjected to a soothing, instrumental lullaby by the famous musician Mozart for twenty minutes. The other half had the blood taken out in silence. As per the SOP, all infants were given 0.5 millilitres of sugar solution two minutes before the heel prick was performed. 

Notably, the lullaby played through the heel prick test and continued till five minutes later. The medical professionals who took the blood wore noise-cancelling headphones, so they weren't aware if the music was playing or not. Moreover, the parents weren't allowed to physically cuddle the babies during the trial. 

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Also read | A Mozart song found to have calming effect on people with epilepsy

Findings of the study 

The investigator scored the infants' pain using crying, breathing patterns, facial expressions, limb movement and alertness as indicators. Consequently, the study findings revealed that newborns exposed to Mozart showed "a statistically and clinically significant" reduction in scores on the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale (NIPS), and this was true before, during, and after the heel prick.

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"Our study objectively proves reduction in pain scores by using recorded music in a randomised, controlled, blinded study of predominantly non-white, term neonates. Recorded music is effective in reducing acute pain in term neonates and can be widely used even in low-resource nurseries," the study stated. 

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Notably, a previous study published in the journal Scientific Reports in 2021 also stated that listening to a Mozart sonata induced a calming effect on those suffering from epilepsy. Scientists played Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K448 for epilepsy patients and monitored their brainwaves. They checked the occurrences of IEDs (Interictal Epileptiform Discharges: Brief, harmful brain events suffered by epileptics between seizures).

They found that IEDs decreased after 30 seconds of listening to the music. There was a significant effect on the parts of the brain associated with emotion.

(With inputs from agencies)

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