Highlights
- •Impact of music on pain processing was assessed using quantitative sensory testing (QST).
- •Participants had lower pain sensitivity and less catastrophizing during their favorite music.
- •Patient-selected favorite music may be an effective and low-risk adjuvant analgesic.
ABSTRACT
We evaluated how pain processing and situational pain catastrophizing differed between
two music interventions (Unwind and favorite music) and a control condition (white
noise). Healthy adults (n=70) completed quantitative sensory testing (QST) measuring
pressure pain threshold (PPTh) and tolerance (PPTol), heat pain threshold (HPTh),
offset analgesia (OA), temporal summation of pain (TSP), and conditioned pain modulation
(CPM). Participants completed three QST rounds with the presence of white noise (control
condition), a relaxing music app (Unwind), and their favorite music, which were presented
in a randomized order. The Situational Pain Catastrophizing Scale was completed after
each round. Friedman tests and post-hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare
pain processing and catastrophizing across the three conditions. Participants’ PPTh,
PPTol, and HPTh were significantly higher during the favorite music condition compared
to the other two conditions, indicating lower pain sensitivity when listening to favorite
music. In contrast, OA was lower in the favorite music condition. Although TSP and
CPM were induced by the QST paradigm, these did not differ across the three conditions.
Situational pain catastrophizing was also significantly lower during the favorite
music condition. Several measures of pain sensitivity and situational pain catastrophizing
were lower when listening to favorite music compared to relaxing music or white noise.
More research is necessary to determine the mechanism(s) by which music modulates
pain processing.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 8,
2023
Received in revised form:
December 12,
2022
Received:
August 29,
2022
Publication stage
In Press Journal Pre-ProofIdentification
Copyright
© Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
