This paper reviews the use of music as an adjuvant to the control of pain, especially in medical procedures. Surgery causes stress and anxiety that exacerbates the experience of pain. Self-report of and physiological
measures on post-surgical patients indicate that music therapy or music stimulation reduces the perception of pain, both alone and when part of a multimodal pain management program, and can reduce the need for pharmaceutical interventions. However, multimodal pain therapy, including nonpharmacological interventions after surgery, is still rare in medical practice.
