Listening to music could serve as an alternative to opioid medication for patients with chronic pain.
- A 58-year-old woman suffered from chronic pain for 20 years following a car accident.
- Listening to music allowed him to reduce pain and relieve withdrawal symptoms when stopping painkillers.
- The doctors behind this case study believe that other people could benefit from the pain-relieving effects of music.
Music softens morals… and chronic pain. This is what the Mexican doctors Roberto Mercadillo and Eduardo Garza-Villarreal assure in their clinical case published on April 28, 2021 in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Old chronic pain soothed by music
The two doctors followed a 58-year-old patient who had suffered from chronic pain for 20 years. The latter stemmed from a spinal problem caused by a car accident. For many years, she took high doses of painkillers in an attempt to ease her pain. In September 2021, she decided to stop her pain treatment. She then discovered that her back pain diminished when she listened to melodies. In addition, the fifties also had the impression that the music repaired her “brain chemistry”impaired by long-term use of high doses of opioids, and reduced withdrawal symptoms.
“Sharing her experience at the pain clinic, she was initially told that music was just a distraction and later that she was very creative in using music to relieve pain, but she strongly disagreed with this statement and was convinced that music worked differently than mere distraction”, write the authors of the case study. Faced with the insistence of the patient, her attending physician sent her a previous study by Dr. Garza-Villarreal on the effect of music on health. “Very intrigued by this subject, she contacted the authors to share her experience and understand how music helps her manage chronic pain and gives her energy and motivation”add the scientists.
Music: an analgesic effect linked to pleasurable experiences
During their meeting, the patient confided to the two doctors that to relieve her chronic pain, she listened to music all day, with the exception of times when she was in a meeting. Eighty playlists containing between 15 and 100 pieces thus served as painkillers. These songs were used to fight against different aspects of his disorders: to relieve his ailments and anxiety, to motivate himself to exercise or to have a better quality of sleep.
After a three-month survey of the volunteer’s pain and music use, the two Mexican researchers confirmed that listening to songs not only relieved her pain, but also reduced the withdrawal effects after stopping her opioid treatment. They argue that the decrease in pain is linked to endogenous opioid and dopaminergic systems associated with pleasurable experiences, providing natural analgesia.
“His case suggests that there may be people with chronic pain who can benefit greatly from music-induced analgesia and that it may be possible to use music to reduce any type of analgesic”they conclude.
