title: Well-loved music robustly relieves pain: a randomized, controlled trial.
abstract: Music has pain-relieving effects, but its mechanisms remain unclear. We sought to verify previously studied analgesic components and further elucidate the underpinnings of music analgesia. Using a well-characterized conditioning-enhanced placebo model, we examined whether boosting expectations would enhance or interfere with analgesia from strongly preferred music. A two-session experiment was performed with 48 healthy, pain experiment-naïve participants. In a first cohort, 36 were randomized into 3 treatment groups, including music enhanced with positive expectancy, non-musical sound enhanced with positive expectancy, and no expectancy enhancement. A separate replication cohort of 12 participants received only expectancy-enhanced music following the main experiment to verify the results of expectancy-manipulation on music. Primary outcome measures included the change in subjective pain ratings to calibrated experimental noxious heat stimuli, as well as changes in treatment expectations. Without conditioning, expectations were strongly in favor of music compared to non-musical sound. While measured expectations were enhanced by conditioning, this failed to affect either music or sound analgesia significantly. Strongly preferred music on its own was as pain relieving as conditioning-enhanced strongly preferred music, and more analgesic than enhanced sound. Our results demonstrate the pain-relieving power of personal music even over enhanced expectations.
  Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01835275.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS), Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Psychology, Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Irving
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kirsch
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Robert R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Karin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS), Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Ted J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Kaptchuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America; Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging and Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, United States of America.
authors.forename: Randy L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Gollub
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009147:Music Therapy; D059408:Pain Management / Q000379:methods*; D058748:Pain Perception; D055815:Young Adult