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Music and Sedation — a Synergic Approach to Alleviate Pain
Music’s profound influence on our emotional and physiological well-being since ancient times is undeniable. Not only does it foster social cohesion and emotional expression, but also serves as a powerful tool for relaxation and recreation.
In this article, we aim to explore the various ways in which music therapy can alleviate pain and promote overall well-being. By synthesizing existing research and evidence-based practices, we hope to shed light on the efficacy of music therapy as a complementary treatment modality.
How Our Brain Reacts to Music
Music therapy is a structured approach to utilizing music’s physiological, psychological, and emotional effects as part of treatment for individuals coping with illness or trauma. Our brain reacts to musical rhythm, melody, and beats in several ways. Various studies have been conducted to try and understand how the brain responds to music and how these responses could impact the effectiveness of music therapy.
1. Psychological Response
Music has a profound impact on our psychophysiological state. It can evoke memories, stimulate creativity, and alter mood. When we listen to music, our brain processes the auditory information and interprets it in ways that affect our thoughts, perceptions, and behaviors. Music therapy has been shown to have the potential to remedy psychological breakdowns, such as depression, anxiety, and general stress. This is achieved by offering a therapeutic outlet for the expression of one’s emotions as well as introspection.
2. Physiological Response
The human body is a great mystery, and one of its many shockers is how its physiological response to music involves changes in its physical functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, and even respiratory rate. Researchers have done a great deal of work to understand how music can have a direct impact on these physiological parameters. Some studies have shown that certain types of music elicit specific physiological responses. For instance, fast-paced and rhythmic music has been proven to increase your heart rate and blood pressure. On the other hand, slow and melodic music can induce relaxation and reduce stress levels.
3. Emotional Response
Multiple studies have shown listening to music can result in a marked increase in brain activity in the regions associated with emotion and reward.
Music can induce a strong emotional response in listeners in many ways. Unexpected changes in musical features, such as intensity and tempo, result in enhanced tension and anticipation. Moreover, different musical elements, such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and lyrics, can also evoke a wide range of emotions, including joy, sadness, excitement, and nostalgia.
Our brain processes these emotional cues in music through complex neural pathways, triggering the release of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Music therapy utilizes this emotional power to help individuals process and express their emotions in a therapeutic context, leading to emotional healing and personal growth.
How Sedation Achieves Pain Relief
Procedural sedation is a widely used practice across various medical procedures to alleviate pain and discomfort. According to the Center for Disease Control’s data from the National Hospital Discharge Survey, sedation or anesthesia plays a crucial role in facilitating nearly 45 million procedures.
During procedural sedation, individuals remain conscious while the medical procedure is performed. Medical professionals closely monitor the patient’s heart rate and breathing throughout the process to ensure safety. These medical professionals undergo safe sedation training before being authorized to administer sedation. Despite being awake, patients remain relaxed and comfortable during the procedure.
Depresses CNS
Sedatives are prescription medications that reduce brain activity and promote relaxation and calmness. Sedation is commonly administered by qualified medical professionals to alleviate anxiety, discomfort, and pain.
Sedation drugs enhance the activity of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is responsible for slowing down brain activity. By increasing GABA’s activity, sedatives amplify its calming effect on the brain, promoting a state of relaxation.
Eases Muscle Tension and Induces Anxiolysis
Sedation eases muscle tension and induces anxiolysis through its effects on the central nervous system (CNS) neurotransmitters, particularly gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and serotonin.
GABA receptors are widely distributed in regions that control muscle tone and tension. By increasing the activity of this neurotransmitter, sedation suppresses the firing of neurons in these areas, leading to muscle relaxation and hence decreasing muscle tension. Sedation also affects serotonin which regulates mood and anxiety.
We also have other neurotransmitter systems, such as noradrenergic and dopaminergic systems, which are implicated in muscle tension and anxiety. Sedation has been shown to have a marked impact on these systems as well. For example, sedation drugs that block the reuptake of norepinephrine or dopamine may further contribute to muscle relaxation and anxiety reduction by altering the balance of neurotransmitters involved in stress responses.
Overall, the combined effects of sedation on GABA, serotonin, and possibly other neurotransmitter systems help to ease muscle tension and induce anxiolysis, providing relief from both physical and psychological symptoms of anxiety and stress.
Modulates the Perception of Pain
Pain, a common symptom of various ailments, is processed and perceived by the brain. Medications that target the brain can modulate pain perception, primarily through two types of drugs: analgesics and anesthetics.
Analgesics alleviate pain without inducing loss of consciousness, while anesthetics depress the central nervous system (CNS).
Analgesics specifically target pain relief without affecting consciousness. On the other hand, central anesthesia involves drugs that depress the CNS, leading to the absence of sensory perception, including consciousness, while vital functions remain intact. This distinction underscores the importance of understanding the mechanisms of action and effects of different medications in managing pain and achieving desired levels of anesthesia.
The Results of Music Therapy & Sedation Combination
In a study published in the Journal of Invasive Cardiology, the impact of music therapy on pharmacologic conscious sedation during invasive coronary angiography (ICA) was evident. Conducted on 72 subjects undergoing elective ICA, the study compared the use of standard sedation with music therapy alongside medication. Results showed similar anxiety levels between groups, but the music group exhibited a trend towards reduced sedative use, particularly midazolam.
This suggests that music therapy may offer a viable alternative or complement to traditional sedation methods during such procedures, potentially reducing the need for sedative medications without compromising patient comfort. On the other hand, combining music therapy with sedation during medical procedures can have a synergistic effect on patient comfort and overall procedural outcomes.
Conclusion
The potential of music therapy as a non-pharmacologic adjunct in managing pain and anxiety during invasive medical procedures like coronary angiography can’t be overstated. By potentially reducing the reliance on pharmacologic conscious sedation, music therapy offers a promising avenue for improving patient experience and outcomes. In addition to music therapy, sedation also plays a significant role in alleviating discomfort, pain, and anxiety.
Overall, the combined use of music therapy and sedation offers a holistic approach to patient care, addressing both the physical and emotional aspects of discomfort and anxiety associated with medical procedures.
An AI tool could help spot breast cancer risk by analysing how individual breast cells behave when squeezed under stress, research suggests.
Researchers at City of Hope and the University of California, Berkeley, created a microfluidic platform that assesses women’s breast cancer risk at the cellular level.
The platform squeezes individual breast epithelial cells, which line breast tissue, to measure how they deform, recover and behave under stress.
Because more than 90 per cent of women do not have a known genetic predisposition to breast cancer or a family history of the disease, the researchers said the approach could help fill a key gap in risk assessment.
Mark LaBarge, professor in the department of population sciences at City of Hope, said: “For women with a known genetic risk factor for breast cancer, there are things you can do like follow a higher-risk screening protocol. For everybody else, you’re left wondering, ‘Am I at high risk?’
“By translating physical changes in cells into quantifiable data, this tool gives women something tangible to discuss with their doctors, not just risk estimates, but evidence drawn directly from their own cells.”
The researchers developed a machine learning algorithm that identifies and measures cells showing signs of accelerated ageing, generating an individual breast cancer risk score.
They said the platform uses simple electronics that could be easy and affordable to replicate on a large scale.
Lydia Sohn, chair in mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley, said: “Our team isn’t the first to measure the mechanical properties of cells; however, other approaches require advanced imaging technology that’s expensive, cumbersome and has limited availability.
“In contrast, MechanoAge uses computer chips that are simpler than an Apple Watch and ‘RadioShack parts’ that are cheap and easy to assemble, potentially making the device highly scalable.”
About 6 per cent of women who develop breast cancer carry known genetic mutations.
For women outside this group, risk is usually estimated indirectly using population models or measures such as breast density, which can both overestimate and underestimate individual risk.
The researchers said there is currently no non-genetic test that can identify women at higher risk of breast cancer.
Screening mammograms can detect cancer only once it has started to grow, but the MechanoAge platform aims to assess risk earlier by looking for physical changes in individual cells.
Using the platform, the researchers found that breast cells appear to have a “mechanical age” separate from a person’s chronological age, based on how the cells respond to stress.
They said this is the first time mechanical age has been quantified in biological cells.
Sohn said: “We learned that the older the mechanical age, as determined by how cells respond to being squeezed through our microfluidic device, the higher the risk for breast cancer.”
In this type of mechano-node-pore sensing, an electrical current is measured across a liquid-filled channel.
As cells pass through, they disrupt the current, generating measurements about their size and shape. By narrowing parts of the channel, researchers squeeze the cells and then measure how long each one takes to return to its normal shape.
The team found that cells from older women were stiffer and took longer to bounce back after being squeezed.
They also identified a subset of younger women whose cells behaved more like those from older women. These cells came from women with genetic mutations linked to a higher breast cancer risk.
The researchers then refined the algorithm to assign a risk score based on the cells’ measured mechanical and physical properties. They said it successfully identified women with known genetic risks.
The team then used it to compare cells from healthy women, women with a family history of breast cancer, and cells taken from the healthy breast of women with breast cancer in the other breast.
LaBarge said: “With accuracy, we were able to figure out which women were at high risk of breast cancer and which women didn’t seem to be.”
The work grew out of more than 12 years of collaboration between the two labs, combining engineering with cancer and ageing biology.
Sohn said: “It’s a true collaboration. We’ve learned a lot from each other.
LaBarge added: “In my view, this is what happens when you have a real collaboration that develops over a long time. This result is not what we imagined at the beginning.”
An experimental drug slowed triple-negative breast cancer in mice by flooding tumour cells with toxic fats.
Triple-negative breast cancer lacks three common drug targets, making it one of the hardest-to-treat and most aggressive forms of the disease.
The compound, known as DH20931, appears to push cancer cells past their limits by triggering a surge in ceramides, fat-like molecules that place the cells under intense stress until they self-destruct.
In lab experiments, the drug also made standard chemotherapy more effective. When combined with doxorubicin, researchers were able to reduce the dose needed to kill cancer cells by about fivefold.
The drug targets an enzyme known as CerS2 to sharply increase production of these lipids and stress cancer cells. Healthy cells, by contrast, showed lower sensitivity to the drug in lab tests.
While the early results are promising, further preclinical and clinical trials would still be needed to determine the safety and effectiveness of DH20931 in humans.
Satya Narayan, a professor in the University of Florida’s College of Medicine, led the study with an international group of collaborators.
The researchers published their results on human-derived tumours on 21 April and presented their findings on combination therapy at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in San Diego.
Narayan likened the drug’s effects to a home’s electrical system handling a power surge.
While healthy cells act like a properly grounded and installed circuit, cancer cells are more like a jumble of mismatched wires and faulty fuses. DH20931 overwhelms cells not with electricity, but with fats.
He said: “When that surge goes into the cancer cells, they cannot handle the amount of power they are getting. The fuses burn out, the cell can’t handle the surge and it dies.”
The compound was developed at the University of Florida in the lab of Sukwong Hong.
Hong, now a professor at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, created DH20931 as one of many drug candidates tested for efficacy in Narayan’s lab.
In the study, researchers implanted human triple-negative breast cancer tumours into mice and treated them with DH20931.
The drug significantly slowed tumour growth without causing noticeable weight loss or signs of toxicity in the animals. In separate lab experiments, it also showed activity against other breast cancer subtypes.
In addition to increasing lipid levels, DH20931 triggers a second stress signal by flooding cells with calcium.
Together, these effects disrupt the mitochondria, the structures that produce a cell’s energy, ultimately leading to cell death.
Narayan said: “It does not just follow one pathway but it goes through multiple pathways. It’s a two-hit hypothesis.
“These pathways are common in all breast cancer types and other solid tumours, so we think this drug can be useful not only in triple-negative breast cancer but potentially other cancers as well.”
Entrepreneur
Future Fertility raises Series A financing to scale AI tools redefining fertility care worldwide
Future Fertility Inc. has announced the closing of a US$4.1 million Series A financing round.
The round was led by M Ventures (the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) and Whitecap Venture Partners, with participation from new investors Sandpiper Ventures, Gaingels, and Jolt VC.
The financing will accelerate Future Fertility’s commercial expansion into Asia-Pacific and support its entry into the United States, including planned FDA 510(k) clearance for additional products as part of a broader U.S. market entry strategy.
Proceeds will also advance the development of a broader AI platform, from egg assessment through to embryo transfer, designed to support clinicians, embryologists, and patients across the full IVF journey.
M Ventures and Whitecap have supported Future Fertility’s mission to translate AI innovation into meaningful clinical outcomes since the company’s earliest stages.
Oliver Hardick, investment director, M Ventures, said: “Future Fertility is addressing a critical unmet need in reproductive medicine with a differentiated AI platform grounded in clinical data and real-world workflow integration.
“We are excited to continue supporting the company and team because we believe its technology has the potential to improve decision-making for clinicians, bring greater clarity to patients, and help advance a more personalised standard of care in fertility treatment.”
Future Fertility’s AI platform addresses a long-standing gap in fertility care: historically, there has been no objective, clinically validated method for assessing egg quality (Gardner et al., 2025), despite it being one of the most important drivers of reproductive success.
The company’s suite of deep learning tools includes VIOLET™, MAGENTA™, and ROSE™, purpose-built for egg freezing, IVF, and egg donation respectively.
The tools are based on AI models trained and validated on more than 650,000 oocyte images and are deployed in over 300 clinics across 35 countries.
Rhiannon Davies, founding and managing partner, Sandpiper Ventures, said: “The best outcomes in fertility care globally come from better data and smarter tools. Future Fertility understands that, and they’ve built a platform that delivers on it.
“Sandpiper is proud to back a team turning rigorous science into real results for patients and clinicians alike.”
Partnerships with the world’s leading fertility networks – including IVI RMA and Eugin Group across Latin America and Europe, FertGroup Medicina Reproductiva in Brazil, and most recently announced Kato Ladies Clinic in Japan – reflect growing demand for objective, AI-powered oocyte assessment in fertility care. In the United States, ROSE™ is newly available under an FDA 513(g) determination.
Research shows that approximately 50 per cent of IVF patients do not understand their likelihood of success, and many discontinue treatment prematurely, even though cumulative success rates improve significantly with multiple cycles (McMahon et al., 2024).
By delivering earlier clarity on egg quality, Future Fertility’s tools support more informed conversations between clinicians and patients, helping set realistic expectations and guide decisions about next steps.
Future Fertility’s growing evidence base spans seven peer-reviewed publications in Human Reproduction, Reproductive BioMedicine Online, Fertility & Sterility, and Nature’s Scientific Reports, and more than 70 scientific abstracts accepted and presented with partner clinics at conferences worldwide.
Christine Prada, CEO, Future Fertility, said: “Fertility treatment is one of the most emotionally and physically demanding experiences a person can go through.
“Every patient deserves objective data, not just a best guess, to support better decisions at critical moments in their care.
“This funding means we can bring that clarity to more patients, in more countries, at a moment when it matters most.”
Find out more about Future Fertility at futurefertility.com
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