Relaxation Music for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a common complaint in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Compounding these concerns, opioid analgesics are frequently used to treat severe acute pain. An estimated 30% of chronic pain patients due to IBD report opioid use. Those who continue to use opioids can develop opioid misuse, and opioid misuse portends addiction and overdose so there is a need for better, non-addictive treatment options.

Music interventions effectively reduce pain and pain-related symptomology. Meta-analytic results indicate listening to music can reduce acute and chronic pain. Music listening also decreases emotional distress from pain as well as the use of pain medication. Music interventions have demonstrated these positive effects on pain across a number of settings, including surgical, in-patient, and community settings. Importantly, due to the ubiquity of music - especially freely available online music - music interventions are easily accessible and highly scalable.