Effect and Safety of Listening to Music for Chronic Pain Relief

Summary

Chronic pain is a multidimensional pathological condition that reduces patients' quality of life and interferes with their daily family and work activities.

Opioids are the most powerful analgesics in the treatment of pain. They are used as a basic analgesic treatment for managing patients with chronic pain and as an analgesic treatment for managing breakthrough pain.

Chronic administration of opioids can cause significant side effects (e.g., dependence, constipation) and tolerance to their analgesic effects, limiting their use. Different behavioral therapies (e.g., mindfulness and cognitive therapy) have been proposed to potentiate the analgesic effects of opioids and, consequently, reduce the dose and the appearance of adverse effects. One of the proposed approaches consists of listening to music therapeutically as a cognitive tool that modulates attention and regulates mood. Some studies provide evidence that music can reduce opioid requirements in patients with chronic pain. On the other hand, both opioids and music activate brain circuits for reward, reinforcement, and motivation.

Preliminary results obtained by our research group in animal models suggest that listening to music can reduce the appearance of a withdrawal syndrome after chronic administration of opioids.

Our working hypothesis is that multimodal therapy, based on listening to music as an adjuvant treatment to regular analgesic treatment with opioids, reduces pain intensity and its harmful effects in patients diagnosed with chronic non-cancer pain. Hence, the daily amount of opioids taken will be reduced, as well as the likelihood of developing opioid tolerance, dependence, and other opioid-related adverse events. At the same time, these patients' emotional well-being and quality of life will improve.

This is a parallel-group, open-label, single-center randomized, pilot, controlled clinical trial that aims to evaluate the effect and safety of music as a coadjuvant treatment for chronic non-cancer pain.

Conditions

• Chronic Pain

Interventions

OTHER

Music

Patients will listen daily to a musical playlist for 30 - 60 minutes in a row; the psychologist will set up a music playlist according to the patient's individual interests. Patients will be asked to focus on this activity, that is, without performing any other activity simultaneously.

OTHER

Audiobook

Patients will listen daily to an audiobook for 30 - 60 minutes in a row; the psychologist will set up a list of audiobooks according to the patient's individual interests. Patients will be asked to focus on this activity, that is, without performing any other activity simultaneously.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sebastian Videla

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ancor S Alfonso, MD · Anesthesiologist at Bellvitge University Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2023-05-18

Primary Completion

2024-09-30

Completion

2025-05-31

Countries

• Spain

Study Locations