Meadow scenes helped ease pain

US researchers told the patients to look at a mural depicting a meadow, while listening to a recording of a "babbling brook" through headphones while undergoing a bronchoscopy.

This procedure - in which a probe is passed down the throat into the lung so that doctors can check for signs of cancer and other problems - can be highly uncomfortable, and even painful on many occasions.

However, the "natural" patients reported far better pain control than those simply given the procedure with no distraction.

Wider use

It is not clear whether any type of organised distraction would have had a similar effect, but the hospital involved, Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, US, is introducing the murals more widely onto its wards.

The researchers tested their sights and sounds on 41 patients undergoing the procedure.

Pain control was the only area in which any benefit was noted - the patients fared no better when it came to anxiety, breathing difficulty, and their willingness to have the procedure done again.

Dr Gregory Diette, an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins, said: "What stood out was pain control.

"That was the only area of significant improvement.

"Patients who listened to the nature sounds and looked at the mural during the bronchoscopy were 43% more likely to report pain control as very good or excellent.