Certain Music Really Is a Form of Medicine

A new study says listening to your favorite song can reduce pain as much as taking an Advil
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 5, 2023 8:00 AM CST
Certain Music Really Is a Form of Medicine
   (Getty / Viktoriia Hnatiuk)

Music has long been said to have healing qualities, and a new study confirms there's quite a bit of truth to that. The Washington Post reports that researchers from Montreal's McGill University found that listening to favorite songs reduced pain responses as much as taking an over-the-counter painkiller. The study, published in Frontiers journal, asked participants to choose two favorite tracks: a song they'd take on a desert island, and an all-time favorite. During a controlled mix of playing those songs together, shuffled with relaxing music, and then silence, participants rated pain sensations emitted from a thermal simulator strapped to their arms. Across the board, the participants reported feeling less pain while listening to songs that resonated with them emotionally.

"There is a little bit of a mystery surrounding music," said psychology professor Mathieu Roy, a lead author on the study. "It's not clear why we experience such strong emotional experiences when we listen." The settings on the pain simulator remained constant (about the amount of pain you'd feel from touching a hot coffee cup), and at the end of the study, some participants were surprised the threshold didn't vary. The researchers sorted the favorite songs into four emotional categories: energizing/activating, happy/cheerful, calming/relaxing, and moving/bittersweet. Due to the small sample of participants (63), the researchers couldn't determine if there was a marked difference in the music's emotional category on pain relief, though.

As a follow up, the McGill researchers want to observe music's direct effect on the brain by playing favorite songs with participants placed in MRI machines. But the power that music's impact can have on our bodies has been long known. The Post cites several other studies it has covered on the ways music heals, while interesting findings published this September delve into music's effects on mood. According to Classic FM, researchers from the British Academy of Sound Therapy know just the right dose of sound to release sadness (13 minutes) and incite joy (9 minutes). (See how streaming music has changed the way musicians are creating it).

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