Explore (NY). 2021 Mar 18:S1550-8307(21)00054-9. doi: 10.1016/j.explore.2021.03.003. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
CONTEXT: The analgesic effect of music has long been reported.
OBJECTIVE: To assess how anxiety-related psychological states affect the analgesic effect of music using the cold pressor task (CPT).
DESIGN: A 3-period × 3-sequence crossover design was adopted; three conditions were used: “no sound,” “music-listening,” and “news-listening.”
SETTING: PARTICIPANTS: Forty-nine participants were included.
INTERVENTIONS: After completing five anxiety-related psychological instruments (Anxiety Sensitivity Index [ASI]-16, ASI-Revised, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI]-S, STAI-T, and Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20), the participants were allocated to the low- or high-anxiety group. The high- and low-anxiety groups were defined based on cutoff points according to the distributions and characteristics of the five instruments.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pain responses, such as pain tolerance time, pain intensity, and pain unpleasantness, were measured on the CPT. Pain responses in the music-listening condition were also compared to those in the other two conditions via pairwise comparisons within each anxiety group.
RESULTS: The Cronbach alpha of the five instruments ranged from 0.866 to 0.95, indicating that they were reliable. Pain responses in the music-listening condition in the low-anxiety groups based on any of the five scales were significantly different from those in the other conditions, but this effect was not found in the high-anxiety groups. This study demonstrates that anxiety-related psychological states can predict the analgesic effect of music on pain responses measured by the CPT and suggests that music may be beneficial as a pain management tool in low-anxiety groups.
PMID:33846083 | DOI:10.1016/j.explore.2021.03.003
