https://www.dpa-international.com/trends-and-features/urn:newsml:dpa.com:20090101:261008-99-895182/
Stevie Wonder sang of ordinary pain in his 1976 hit of the same name, and while the hurt described was more of the psychological kind, it seems that the physical discomfort caused by routine medical procedures such as injections can be offset by music.
Doctors at University Hospital Zürich (UHZ) have found that patients felt better after a needle-prick if listening to their favourite tunes, with those who had preexisting pain saying that a few minutes of Mozart helped.
“From the four conditions we examined, only favorite music and Mozart showed a positive effect,” said Meritxell Garcia Alzamora of UHZ.
Over 200 patients took part in the tests, which included the playing of so-called relaxation music and what participants listed as their preferred tunes. Mozart’s Sonata KV448 – which has in the past been described as therapeutic or as even a help against epilepsy – was the other option.
“Although a needle puncture is a minor procedure, the level of pain can vary significantly from person to person,” said Andrei Cristinel Dragnea, another UHZ doctor.
Fear of injections, or trypanophobia, can sometimes deter people from getting necessary jabs or lead to unnecessary pain from tensing-up or flinching as the needle approaches the vein.
“Favorite music manifested a significant pain reduction effect both in patients with and without baseline pain — i.e. with preexisting pain before needle puncture,” Alzamora explained.
“Patients who listened to relaxation music or no music didn’t experience any change in their pain,” the university said in a press release launching the research, which was published in the medical journal Frontiers in Pain Research.
“Relaxation music is usually characterized by a slow speed and low volume, and does not show noticeable dynamics,” said Garcia Alzamora, speculating that such traits possibly “contributed to the patients disregarding relaxation music, which would explain the lack of pain relief.”
