Music listening changed a pain threshold measure, with other pain outcomes inconclusive
In a small laboratory trial, the longest listening group had a higher pain threshold than controls, but pain endurance and reported pain did not clearly improve.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Music listening produced mixed results in this experiment using electrical pain stimuli. The longest listening group had a statistically higher pain threshold than the no-music group, but endurance, pain intensity and unpleasantness did not show clear improvements. This pattern does not establish an optimal listening duration or show that music treats pain in clinical care.
This was a pilot study in healthy volunteers exposed to experimentally induced pain. The abstract does not report the unit for its pain-threshold estimate, and observations after music stopped showed no clear pattern.
What researchers found
Pain threshold
20 minutes of music versus no music, assessed at the end of the intervention.
Pain outcomes did not move together
Pain threshold, endurance, intensity and unpleasantness were assessed separately. The threshold finding therefore describes just part of the experiment's pain response; it should not be read as evidence that participants experienced broadly better pain relief.
Duration comparisons remain unresolved
Shorter listening groups did not show statistically significant threshold differences from controls. That does not prove the longest duration outperformed them, because separate comparisons with a control group cannot establish differences between active groups.
The original publication
Duration of music listening in music-induced analgesia: A pilot randomized controlled trial.
van der Valk Bouman ES, Becker AS, Smienk M et al.
Complement Ther Med · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41314516
- Record checked
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