According to a report by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), an estimated 50 million Americans (more or less a fourth of them) deal with chronic pain. If you’re one of these people, it means various approaches have come and gone in your quest to deal with the pain.
Out of all that, have you ever tried music?
Music Is the Key
As it turns out, the ancient practice of using music to alleviate pain goes back centuries. Think of those times when you have heard someone say “this song always reminds me of my childhood” or “my dad would sing this song to me when I was younger.” Music therapy makes pain far more bearable.
Music has been used as a clinical intervention because research finds it’s key for patients to feel less pain. It also promotes rhythmic breathing and relaxation, among others. Music therapy will go a long way to help individuals who face challenges dealing with pain.
Unlocking Pain Management
Music therapy is a clinical intervention that works for a number of purposes and multiple settings. It relies on the science behind its potential to help people cope with ailments such as pain, depression, stress and more.
Pain as an experience is subjective and quite complicated. Aside from psychosocial processes, cognitive and sensory ones are involved as well. It is difficult to fully control the pain through traditional means, such as distracting the patient with music. Music therapy aims to address all parts of the pain management experience when possible, including analyzing and manipulating cognitive processes through playlists. It often includes creating individualized playlists for each patient to meet their needs.
The music therapists that work in medical settings are responsible for a significant part of pain management. Important responsibilities of music therapists in medical settings include the effective management of pain. This includes procedural, acute and chronic pain. It’s crucial to manage pain effectively, which is why music therapists have heavy responsibilities in the medical setting. When pain is not treated enough or at all, it can have lingering impacts on the likes of:
- Cognitive processes
- Disability
- Mental health
- Mood
- Physical function
- Sleep
Effectively treating pain will lead to a number of benefits for patients such as:
- Alleviating anxiety and stress
- Giving their mood a positive boost
- Decreasing stress-induced hormones
- Improvements in depressive symptoms
- Improvements in self-regulation
- Increasing activity in the brain’s pleasure and reward areas
- Increasing production of oxytocin
- Physiological changes that aid blood pressure
- Promoting relaxation, rhythmic breathing, and rest
- Reducing the amount of pain they perceive
- Regulated states that improve connecting with others
Studies have shown that listening to music reduces the pain associated with chronic osteoarthritis, among other types of injuries. Sensory stimulation is how music therapy helps to evoke patient responses.
Conclusion
People are already well aware of the role music plays in helping to lift moods. There is also scientific evidence that it aids in effective pain management. Chronic pain is far more manageable thanks to the application of music therapy.
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