Research Shows When Patients Choose the Tunes It Gives Pain Relief Jem Golden
Jem Golden
Sessional University Lecturer/Tutor, Strategic Research Consultant, Analyst/Writer
Listening to music has an endless power to stimulate emotions, enhance excitement, deepen contemplation; generate sociability and so much more. I get sustenance daily from so many of those qualities music possesses and I follow avidly the research into multiple kinds of music therapy including preventative care to enhance cognitive and physical resilience.
Last June, I posted an article on LinkedIn summarising a published paper from the March 2022?edition of Reviews in the Neurosciences authored by Luisa Speranza et al, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, et al titled “Music affects functional brain connectivity and is effective in the treatment of neurological disorders”. This research demonstrated the effects of music on the structural and functional rearrangement of brain circuits, emphasising new insights of music therapy not only as a nonpharmacological intervention to ameliorate the physiological cognitive decline but also to alleviate the core symptoms of severe illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and stroke.
The ground breaking research by Dr. Speranza et al clearly struck a deep chord [pun intended] with readers as it got thousands of reads and I also received many comments and direct messages, often extremely moving, explaining how people now better understood why music had helped support and sustain their recoveries from complex neurological challenges.?
In a research paper published in PLOS One, Dr. Claire Howlin (Cambridge University) and her colleagues from University College Dublin concluded that they’ve found a relationship between selecting what music you want to hear and pain relief.
This is not the first research to suggest that music relieves pain, however, the research team tried to make this study much more true to life by using real music composed specifically for the research and working with people who were currently experiencing acute pain (for example an ankle sprain, or short term lower back pain). Additionally the study team, took a deep dive to understand the psychological mechanisms that explain why different types of music can lead to a reduction in pain.
In an online global experiment, which provided two levels for the listeners’ choice (no choice of music and choice of music) and two levels for music complexity (high complexity and low complexity), a sample of 286 adults experiencing acute pain reported their pain intensity and pain unpleasantness pre- and post-music listening. ?The research team co-created a bespoke piece of music with a well-known commercial artist -Anatole - to enable the manipulation of music complexity while controlling for familiarity, while also facilitating an authentic music listening experience.?
Who took part in the music listening, pain relief study?
The people that participated reported a baseline pain of at least 2 on a pain intensity numeric rating scale (NRS) ranging from 1 to 10 and had experienced pain for less than 12 weeks; were not on any routine prescribed medication; had access to headphones. ?The final sample size comprised 286 adults mainly concentrated in Europe and North America.
Median pain duration was between 1 day and 1 week. The most commonly reported type of pain was back pain, followed by headache, pain in the joints, neck pain and period pain.
The music chosen by patients does not matter
In this study two different pieces of music were used, but they were both equally as effective at relieving pain. Instead, the way that people interact with the music is more important. By choosing the music, you change from being a passive listener to an active listener, which makes the music more absorbing. Of course, this can only happen if you like the music in the first place.
A naturalistic [not lab-based] setting for music listening
A strength of Dr. Howlin’s study comes from the use of a naturalistic setting to explore music listening in a real-world sample of adults experiencing acute pain.
The previous attempts from other researchers to examine the cognitive mechanisms of music interventions for pain have been predominantly laboratory-based sometimes by utilising abstract tone sequences that are unlikely to lead to an enjoyable or cognitively absorbing experience.
In addition, a recent meta-analysis found that, when examined in a laboratory setting, relative to observations conducted in naturalistic settings, smaller relationships are observed between pain behaviour and self-reported pain intensity, suggesting that naturalistic settings give rise to more accurate and reliable reporting.
Finally, measuring pain and music analgesia in a real-world setting increases the likelihood that ratings and observed improvements are representative of participants’ daily lives. Given that the present study is more ecologically valid than previous lab-based experiments, findings suggest that the cognitive mechanism of cognitive agency can meaningfully reduce pain intensity associated with acute pain in day-to-day living.
领英推荐
Highlighting the importance of listener engagement, people who reported higher levels of active engagement experienced greater decreases of pain intensity in the perceived choice condition, than those who reported lower levels of active engagement.?
This suggests that it may be important to consider the extent to which an individual engages with music when planning music therapy interventions. However even those participants with low reported levels of active engagement reported decreases in pain intensity associated with having perceived control of the music, which underscores the importance of facilitating choice and control in music interventions.
The present study has implications for both research and practice, emphasising the importance of attending to individuals’ cognitive agency and engagement, while also identifying the means for facilitating and supporting sustained engagement with music throughout music listening interventions.?
Sources for article:
Tune out pain: Agency and active engagement predict decreases in pain intensity after music listening by Howlin, Stapleton and Rooney. Published in PLOS August 2022
Claire Linked In Profile: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/claire-howlin-phd-01122b5b
Jem’s Three Bespoke Playlists:
21 Jazz-inspired Hip hop Groovestixx
Mostly Piano for Soul Replenishment
Warm Music for Sleep and Serenity Including for Babies
Arts + Health | Creative Aging | Brain Health | Dementia Advocacy | Executive Director DanceStream Projects | Senior Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health @ GBHI
2 年It’s wonderful to see more discussion of the benefits of the arts on health and well-being, specifically on pain relief. Preliminary research (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33087365/) illuminated how facial mirroring between patients and doctors result in neural synchrony as well as analgesia for the person being mirrored. Dance is an art form that lends itself naturally to mirroring in action. We need more research to illustrate what happens when we engage in dance mirroring but based on the research presented here, might hypothesize that a combination of dance and music might prove to have powerful natural analgesic potential.
Internist & Geriatrician | Aging Expert | Amazon Best Selling Author | I help families with aging loved ones choose the right doctor, spot emergencies and avoid the stress and cost of preventable ER visits.
2 年Thank you so much for sharing very beneficial in finding alternative methods for pain management!!!!
Composer (ASCAP) & President of Global P.O.W.E.R. Network, Inc. (THE POOL)
2 年Thank you, Jem. I have had a fascination with music therapy for many years. Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about the healing power of various frequencies. Combining that information with the discoveries you’re showing here makes for a very exciting discovery! Even in a world where attention spans seem to be getting shorter and shorter, I see an increased lack of engagement. On YouTube, people will listen to 20 to 30 seconds of a piece and move on. Sometimes, I find myself doing that when 40 years ago, I would sit down and listen to a whole 30-minute symphony straight through, and then another one rather than watching current TV shows with their fast-paced attention grabbers. So I see, this information needs to spread in the medical field for the intended purposes of this article and for a larger section of our population, as well. Thank you so much for sharing this information. I look forward to reading more.
Head of School of Psychology, Sport and Sensory Sciences
2 年A really interesting read, Jem, thank you!