New Study Finds Connection Between Listening to Music and a Reduction in Pain
A new study in the journal of Frontier in Neurology has found that listening to classical music can actually reduce pain and inflammation. Researchers from the University of Utah played 3-hour-long Mozart compositions to mice with injured paws. After 21 days, the mice were able to withstand heat and pressure on their injured paws 77% longer than those who hadn’t listened to the music IFLScience.com reported. In addition, the researchers also discovered that music increased the effectiveness of traditional medication.
Researchers aren’t necessarily sure exactly how music helps treat pain, and while doctors probably won’t be prescribing this treatment to human patients with chronic pain any time soon, the hope is that this research will open to door for new forms of pain management.
“There is emerging evidence that music interventions can alleviate pain when administered either alone or in combination with other therapies,” Cameron Metcalf, Ph.D., research assistant professor in Pharmacology and Toxicology at U of U Health and first author on the paper, said in a statement. “I was particularly excited to see reduced swelling in the inflammatory pain model.”
