How listening to music may help ease pain from surgery or illness

Hospitals and doctors' offices in the U.S. are inviting singers and musicians to help patients manage their pain. No one is suggesting that a catchy song can completely eliminate serious pain. But several recent studies, including those in the journals PAIN and Scientific Reports, have suggested that listening to music can either reduce the perception of pain or enhance a person’s ability to tolerate it. Nurse Rod Salaysay works with all kinds of instruments in the hospital: a thermometer, a stethoscope, and sometimes his guitar and ukulele. In the recovery unit of UC San Diego Health, Salaysay helps patients manage pain after surgery. Along with medications, he offers tunes on request and sometimes sings. His repertoire ranges from folk songs in English and Spanish to Minuet in G Major and movie favorites like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Patients often smile or nod along. Salaysay even sees changes in their vital signs: lower heart rate and blood pressure, and sometimes reduced requests for fewer painkillers. He is passionate about using music “as a holistic tool to help them get better because we just don't heal their physical and medical needs, but also the emotional and the spiritual needs of patients.” Salaysay is a one-man band, but he’s not alone. Over the past two decades, live performances and recorded music have flowed into hospitals and doctors’ offices as research grows on how songs can help ease pain. The healing power of song may sound intuitive, given music’s deep roots in human culture. But the science of whether and how music dulls acute and chronic pain—technically called music-induced analgesia—is just catching up. Researchers at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands conducted a study on 548 participants to see how listening to five genres of music—classical, rock, pop, urban, and electronic—extended their ability to withstand acute pain, as measured by exposure to very cold temperatures. They found that all music helped, but there was no single winning genre; what's important is that you enjoy it. This article was provided by The Associated Press.