Nowadays, researchers and clinicians
are increasingly interested in alternative nonpharmacological treatments, and music therapy
seems to have additional and powerful effects on
different pathologies and pain. However, since pain
is a subjective perception, it is difficult to evaluate if
and which effect music has on it.
In this study, a new device and method have been
introduced to objectively estimate pain threshold and
its changes related to external stimuli. The abovementioned device, called autoalgometer, allows to
evaluate pain threshold changes while listening to
music or other sounds.
In this experiment, the pain threshold was evaluated
in twenty-seven volunteers after listening to one out
of three different soundtracks: white noise, Mozart’s
sonata K448 or Brian Eno’s ambient music.
Compared to staying in silence, listening to the
recordings had no significant effect on pain
threshold, and the results did not show any
significant difference between the experimental
groups.
Probably, the positive effect of music described in
other studies can be ascribed to a psychological
effect, meaning that music can improve subjective
mood and, thus, modify pain perception
