Ostertag Julian, Zinn Sebastian, Georgii Marie-Therese, Niederle Martin B, Pinto Campos Cristiana, Schneider Gerhard, Hayden Oliver, Kratzer Stephan, Kreuzer Matthias
Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Technical University of Munich, Ismaningerstrasse 22, Munich, 81675, GERMANY.
Department of Anesthesiology, Columbia University, 116th and Broadway, New York, New York, 10027-7041, UNITED STATES.
Biomed Phys Eng Express. 2025 Aug 12. doi: 10.1088/2057-1976/adfa9d.
Pronounced anxiety is increasing in society and is common in patients awaiting surgery. It's associated with increased anesthetic requirements, increased postsurgical pain, and also adverse postoperative outcomes. Binaural beats have been proposed as a non-pharmacological intervention to reduce anxiety in medical settings.
We collected information about the levels of anxiety using the State-Trait Operation Anxiety (STOA) questionnaire. Preoperatively, patients either received binaural beat stimulation (=Binaural Beat) or not (=Control). During the stimulation, we recorded multichannel electroencephalogram (EEG), from which we derived power, morphology, and connectivity measures of the alpha band (phase lock values, coherence). We used estimation statistics to compare anxiety levels. To quantify the effect of the binaural beat intervention on EEG features, we analyzed variance and the area under the receiver operating curve statistics.
Compared to the control group, relative change in STOA-S was, on average, 6 [12.2, 1] percentage points higher in the binaural beat group (p=0.045). State anxiety scores dropped by 1.4 points [-2.3, -0.7] (p=0.003) in the control group and by 2.7 [-3.9, -1.7] (p=0.001) in the binaural beat group. Group assignment did not affect alpha power (ges=0.01, p=0.456), while there may be some effect on alpha band coherence (ges=0.03,p=0.054) and phase locking (ges=0.04, p=0.037).
There is evidence that a musical intervention, as well as simple relaxation before surgery, can reduce preoperative anxiety in patients awaiting surgeryAs only a few electrodes or electrode combinations differed between the groups, some regions might be more prone to align with external stimuli. Future studies should include other types of musical interventions (e.g. monoaural beats) in order to fully understand the role of binaural beats and their potential to reduce anxiety beyond the mere presentation of music.
明显的焦虑在社会中日益增多，在等待手术的患者中很常见。它与麻醉需求增加、术后疼痛加剧以及不良的术后结果有关。双耳节拍已被提议作为一种非药物干预措施，以减轻医疗环境中的焦虑。
我们使用状态-特质手术焦虑（STOA）问卷收集有关焦虑水平的信息。术前，患者要么接受双耳节拍刺激（=双耳节拍组），要么不接受（=对照组）。在刺激过程中，我们记录了多通道脑电图（EEG），从中得出α波段的功率、形态和连接性指标（锁相值、相干性）。我们使用估计统计量来比较焦虑水平。为了量化双耳节拍干预对脑电图特征的影响，我们分析了方差和受试者操作曲线统计量下的面积。
与对照组相比，双耳节拍组中STOA-S的相对变化平均高6[12.2,1]个百分点（p=0.045）。对照组的状态焦虑评分下降了1.4分[-2.3,-0.7]（p=0.003），双耳节拍组下降了2.7[-3.9,-1.7]（p=0.001）。分组并未影响α功率（效应量ges=0.01，p=0.456），而对α波段相干性（ges=0.03，p=0.054）和锁相可能有一些影响（ges=0.04，p=0.037）。
有证据表明，音乐干预以及手术前的简单放松可以减轻等待手术患者的术前焦虑。由于两组之间只有少数电极或电极组合存在差异，某些区域可能更容易与外部刺激同步。未来的研究应包括其他类型的音乐干预（如单耳节拍），以便全面了解双耳节拍的作用及其减轻焦虑的潜力，而不仅仅是音乐呈现的作用。
