Certain Types of Music Can Help People Feel Less Pain, New Study Claims

Certain types of music can help people feel less pain, new research has found.

Earlier this week, a study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, noted that listening to favorite songs can reduce an individual’s perception of pain.

The study gathered 63 healthy young adult participants at the Roy Pain Laboratory at McGill University in Canada, where researchers used a device to heat an area on their left arm that created a sensation the researchers described as similar to a hot cup of coffee held against their skin.

While the device warmed their skin, participants listened to two of their favorite songs, relaxing music chosen for them, coded music, or silence. While the selected song played, study participants were then asked to rate the “intensity and unpleasantness” of the pain.

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A man who listens to music.

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In their findings, the researchers found that participants rated the pain as less intense when they listened to their favorite songs, compared to when they listened to silence or scrambled sounds.

Relaxing music chosen for them, however, did not produce a similar less intense effect, according to the study.

“We can roughly say that favorite music reduced pain by about one point on a 10-point scale, which is at least as strong as an over-the-counter pain reliever like Advil under the same conditions,” Darius Valevicius, one of the study’s authors, said, per Guard.

Valevicius added that emotional or “touching” music could potentially have had “an even stronger effect” on those who took part in the study.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education