Pain perception modulation through music and vibroacoustics. A review of the literature

Abstract

Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Non-pharmacological treatment strategies include those derived from Music Therapy. Receptive techniques represent a set of proposals within the field of Music Therapy whereby users listen and respond to the musical experience silently, verbally or otherwise. Specifically, vibroacoustic music therapy consists of the use of low frequency sine, rhythmic and pulsed waves between 30 Hz and 120 Hz, mixed with music for therapeutic purposes. In recent years, there has been evidence of the effect of listening to music in combination with vibrotactile stimulation on psychophysiological aspects, so that it can be considered an alternative non-pharmacological treatment for pain. The aim of the present work is to show the background on the mechanisms underlying the reduction of pain perception, based on musical listening and vibrotactile stimulation. Although scarce so far, the studies presented show the potential of vibroacoustic music therapy as a treatment for the reduction of people's self-perception of pain. This work intends to be a theoretical contribution to the field of music therapy and a starting point to think about basic and applied research to expand the evidence of music therapy receptive methods.