Trial reportPloS one2014
Well-loved music robustly relieves pain: a randomized, controlled trial.
Trial report in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 4 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Audio-enhanced Analgesia in Healthy Subjects
Music and/or Video Games for Pain Management During Induction of Labor
Animal-assisted Placebo-induced Analgesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Participants
Combining Animal-assisted Intervention and Placebo-induced Analgesia: The Dog as Treatment in a Randomized Controlled Trial
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Tune out pain: Agency and active engagement predict decreases in pain intensity after music listening.PloS one · 2022Trial
- A scoping review of music-based pain treatment mechanism research.Pain reports · 2026Review
- Article
- Music interferes with expectation-induced pain modulation: a controlled cross-over experimental study.Pain reports · 2025Article
- A between-subjects investigation of whether distraction is the main mechanism behind music-induced analgesia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Group singing and its effect on cortisol, alpha amylase, oxytocin, and pain threshold in patients with Parkinson's disease.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- The psychophysiology of music-based interventions and the experience of pain.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- The Impact of Varied Music Applications on Pain Perception and Situational Pain Catastrophizing.The journal of pain · 2023Article
- The effect of preferred music versus disliked music on pain thresholds in healthy volunteers. An observational study.PloS one · 2023Observational
- Feeling the music: The feel and sound of songs attenuate pain.British journal of pain · 2022Article
- How do people with chronic pain choose their music for pain management? Examining the external validity of the cognitive vitality model.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Music-Induced Analgesia in Healthy Participants Is Associated With Expected Pain Levels but Not Opioid or Dopamine-Dependent Mechanisms.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Music to My Senses: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Music Analgesia Across Connectivity Networks Spanning the Brain and Brainstem.Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Article
- The effects of music listening on somatic symptoms and stress markers in the everyday life of women with somatic complaints and depression.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Increased Engagement With Life: Differences in the Cognitive, Physical, Social, and Spiritual Activities of Older Adult Music Listeners.The Gerontologist · 2018Article
- The Role of Musical Attributes in Music-Induced Analgesia: A Preliminary Brief Report.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Scanning the global literature.Global advances in health and medicine · 2015Article
- Music reduces pain and increases resting state fMRI BOLD signal amplitude in the left angular gyrus in fibromyalgia patients.Frontiers in psychology · 2015Article
- Beyond Distraction: Music Therapy for Chronic Pain Management in People with Advanced Cancer.Integrative cancer therapiesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Music has pain-relieving effects, but its mechanisms remain unclear. We sought to verify previously studied analgesic components and further elucidate the underpinnings of music analgesia. Using a well-characterized conditioning-enhanced placebo model, we examined whether boosting expectations would enhance or interfere with analgesia from strongly preferred music. A two-session experiment was performed with 48 healthy, pain experiment-naïve participants. In a first cohort, 36 were randomized into 3 treatment groups, including music enhanced with positive expectancy, non-musical sound enhanced with positive expectancy, and no expectancy enhancement. A separate replication cohort of 12 participants received only expectancy-enhanced music following the main experiment to verify the results of expectancy-manipulation on music. Primary outcome measures included the change in subjective pain ratings to calibrated experimental noxious heat stimuli, as well as changes in treatment expectations. Without conditioning, expectations were strongly in favor of music compared to non-musical sound. While measured expectations were enhanced by conditioning, this failed to affect either music or sound analgesia significantly. Strongly preferred music on its own was as pain relieving as conditioning-enhanced strongly preferred music, and more analgesic than enhanced sound. Our results demonstrate the pain-relieving power of personal music even over enhanced expectations. TRIAL INFORMATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01835275.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.