Time to face the music if you're in pain, says Scots expert

Published on Tuesday 24 March 2009 20:18

LISTENING to your favourite music helps to ease pain, new research by a Scottish scientist revealed yesterday.

People who listened to music they loved during painful situations felt more comfortable and tolerated pain longer than those who used other distractions, such as completing puzzles or looking at art.

Their ability to distract themselves from pain more than doubled if they were listening to their favourite music, according to research by Dr Laura Mitchell, of Glasgow Caledonian University. The lecturer hopes her findings will help patients suffering chronic pain or facing medical tests.

She said: "Playing an individual's favourite piece of music is consistently extremely effective in helping them to tolerate pain and in actually reducing how much pain they feel.

"We want to give clinicians and health-care professionals a means to make patients more comfortable."

As part of the research, 400 volunteers were asked to dunk a hand, up to the wrist, in icy water and keep it there as long as they could while listening to their favourite music.

Participants reported their ability to distract themselves from pain more than doubled if they were listening to their favourite music, while their perception of the amount of pain that they felt dropped significantly.

The volunteers were also invited to choose a painting to look at from among 15 of the world's most popular works of art.

The art helped when compared with looking at a blank wall, but listening to a favourite piece of music was far more effective in distracting volunteers from pain.

Dr Mitchell, a lecturer in the university's division of psychology,

said: "You are so emotionally engaged in the music you love that it can actually relieve the experience of pain."