Para- and Tetraplegic Patients

Vibration-assisted Music Therapy Reduces Pain and Promotes Relaxation of Para- and Tetraplegic Patients. A Pilot Study of Psychiatric and Physical effects of Simultaneous Acoustic and Somatosensory Music Stimulation as Pain Management

Mariauzouls C, Michel D, Schiftan Y.

Institut fur Psychophysiologie, Zurich.

Pain is a well known phenomenon in post-traumatic spinal cord injuries. Nearly 10% of the patients develop most severe, invalidizing, as a rule neurogenic pain conditions that are hardly accessible to conventional therapies. A pilot study was therefore conducted with 10 paraplegics and tetraplegics suffering chronic pain, investigating how vibration supported music therapy with the Musica Medica method affected pain experience, tension/relaxation and well-being. In addition to subjective experience, we measured physiological parameters (finger tip skin temperature, electrodermal activity, heart rate, respiration frequency) during the therapy sessions. All patients had a high acceptance of the method which throughout the group had brought about an increase in relaxation and well-being as well as a decrease of pain experience. The autonomic nervous system variables correlated with relaxation and in addition pointed to an activating impact of the therapy chosen.

Source: Lifesounds