Spotify therapy: Listening to your favorite songs makes medication more effective!

East Lansing, Michigan — Playing the right song at the right time can turn a bad day around. Now, new findings from Michigan State University suggest that our favorite songs can help boost medications, too. I found that I can see

Previous research has shown how music therapy can help treat pain and anxiety. This time, scientists experimented with a different approach by studying the effects of a music-listening intervention on chemotherapy-induced nausea.

“The music-listening intervention is like an over-the-counter drug,” Jason Keenan, an assistant professor at the College of Nursing, said in a university release. “You don’t need a doctor to prescribe them.”

The study included 12 patients undergoing chemotherapy who listened to their favorite music for 30 minutes each time they had to take anti-nausea medication as needed. repeated the music intervention whenever nausea occurred within 5 days after chemotherapy. Overall, patients provided a total of 64 events.

“When we listen to music, our brain activates all kinds of neurons,” adds Professor Keenan. “Both pain and anxiety are neurological phenomena and are interpreted in the brain as conditions. Chemo-induced nausea is not a stomach disease. It is neurological.”

Although the research team observed a decrease in the severity and distress of the patient’s nausea, Professor Kiernan wondered whether it was due to the gradual release of the drug that had its intended effect or an increase in the benefits of the music. It warns that it is ultimately difficult to determine exactly what Going forward, the researchers plan to draw inspiration from another previous study that measured levels of serotonin (a neurotransmitter) released from blood platelets after listening to both unpleasant and pleasant music. doing.

“Serotonin is the major neurotransmitter that causes chemotherapy-induced nausea,” comments Professor Keenan. “Cancer patients take drugs to block the action of serotonin.”

In that early project, researchers noted that patients listening to soothing music released the lowest levels of serotonin, indicating that serotonin remained in platelets and was not released and circulated throughout the body. bottom. On the other hand, after listening to unpleasant music, patients coped with greater stress and had increased levels of serotonin release.

“This was interesting because it provides a neurochemical explanation and a way to measure serotonin and platelet release of serotonin in my study,” concludes Professor Keenan. “Wouldn’t it be great if 10 years later he could take advantage of non-pharmacological interventions such as listening to his favorite music for 10 minutes to supplement his medication?”

This research Clinical Nursing Research.