Pain Management Health Center

Music May Ease Chronic Pain

Addition to Pain Therapy?

The researchers aren't suggesting that music can totally erase pain, and they're not suggesting it as a replacement for standard pain care. But music might be a harmless addition to treatment, the study shows.

"Music is safe, inexpensive, and easy for nurses to teach patients to use," write Siedliecki and Good. They note that nurses can help patients find and use music to help deal with chronic, nonmalignant pain. In doing so, nurses should be sensitive to patients' musical preferences, the researchers add.

Exactly how music helped the patients cope with chronic pain isn't known, or if the rest they got while listening to the music made a difference.