Many people really hate needles. When they have to give blood or get an IV for even a small medical procedure, they may panic, tensing up their muscles and spiking their heart rate, which can amplify the pain of the poke. Some people even suffer a sustained shock of pain and anxiety after the needle has come and gone.
Trypanophobia, as this unfortunate condition is known, is not a rare phenomenon. A 2021 study in Psychological Medicine reported that it may afflict up to one in four adults in the United Kingdom. Trypanophobia can have terrible consequences for a person’s health: People who fear needles often skip vaccinations and other medical care.
Read more: “How Music Sparks Imagination”
But a partial antidote may lie in the dulcet tones of a person’s favorite tunes. These are the findings of a study published today in the journal Frontiers in Pain Research. Music had been shown to soothe pain and anxiety in earlier research, but the effects seem to vary widely depending on the kind of music.
“Although a needle puncture is a minor procedure, the level of pain can vary significantly from person to person,” said Andrei Cristinel Dragnea of University Hospital Zürich, lead author of the article in Frontiers in Pain Research, in a statement. “In modern medicine, the goal of treating physicians is not only to provide a successful diagnosis and therapy, but also to ensure that the procedure causes as little discomfort as possible.”
The team of scientists studied more than 200 patients undergoing a non-emergency MRI of the brain, spine, head or neck, a procedure that requires insertion of a small needle into a vein in your arm or the back of the hand that can deliver contrast agent into the bloodstream. The scientists divided the patients into four different groups, three of whom listened to different kinds of music, and a fourth who listened to no music at all.
One group got to choose their favorite songs, another tuned into generic music designed for relaxation, and a third listened to Mozart’s Sonata for two pianos in D major, found in previous research to have therapeutic effects. The researchers then asked people to rate their pain on a scale of 1 to 10 both during the procedures and then 30 seconds and two minutes later.
“From the four conditions we examined, only favorite music and Mozart showed a positive effect,” said senior author Meritxell Garcia Alzamora of University Hospital Zürich. “Favorite music manifested a significant pain reduction effect both in patients with and without baseline pain. … Mozart only showed significant pain relief in patients with preexisting pain.”
The patients who were listening to their favorite music felt less pain both 30 seconds and 2 minutes after the needle was inserted. In patients who were already experiencing pain prior to the needle prick, listening to their favorite music also reduced pain at the moment when the needle was inserted. Hearing Mozart reduced it two minutes after the poke. Pain levels were more likely to improve with both types of music at the 2-minute interval than at the earlier ones. The so-called relaxation jams didn’t do much for the patients’ pain: It had no effect on their ratings.
For anyone dreading the prick of a needle, the findings suggest that the fix may lie in a pair of headphones and a favorite track or a bit of Mozart. But you might want to skip the elevator music. 
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