Relaxation Music for Chronic Pain

Relaxation Music for Patients With Chronic Pain From IBS, Crohn's, or Colitis

Chronic pain is a common complaint in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Compounding these concerns, opioid analgesics are frequently used to treat severe acute pain. An estimated 30% of chronic pain patients due to IBD report opioid use. Those who continue to use opioids can develop opioid misuse, and opioid misuse portends addiction and overdose so there is a need for better, non-addictive treatment options.

Music interventions effectively reduce pain and pain-related symptomology. Meta-analytic results indicate listening to music can reduce acute and chronic pain. Music listening also decreases emotional distress from pain as well as the use of pain medication. Music interventions have demonstrated these positive effects on pain across a number of settings, including surgical, in-patient, and community settings. Importantly, due to the ubiquity of music - especially freely available online music - music interventions are easily accessible and highly scalable.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: IBS - Irritable Bowel Syndrome; IBD - Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: MIndful Jazz; Behavioral: Reggae Stereotypes; Behavioral: Traditional Mindfulness; Behavioral: Pain psychoeducation

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 120
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Orange, California, United States, 92868
      • University of California Irvine

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 or older
• Living in U.S.
• Have a pain rating related to IBS, Crohn's, or Colitis of five or greater in average pain on a 0-10 numeric rating scale in the preceding week
• Have had pain related to IBS, Crohn's, or Colitis for at least 3 months and for at least 15 days in the preceding 30 days
• GAD Score (Moderate to Severe Anxiety)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Are currently using or have used prescription opioids in the past 3 months
• Have a current cancer diagnosis
• In one of our prior music studies
• Have formal experience with mindfulness

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

4

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: MIndful Jazz; Participants in this group will watch an introduction to jazz appreciation and mindfulness training video, including the use of jazz for pain tolerance prior to the 4-week intervention. Participants in the Mindful Jazz Group will be informed that listening to music they are not comfortable with (i.e., jazz) can enhance long-term pain tolerance.	Behavioral: MIndful Jazz; Mindful Jazz Group: Participants in this group will watch an introduction to jazz appreciation and mindfulness training video, including the use of jazz for pain tolerance prior to the 4-week intervention. Participants in the Mindful Jazz Group will be informed that listening to music they are not comfortable with (i.e., jazz) can enhance long-term pain tolerance.
Experimental: Reggae Stereotypes; Reggae Stereotype Group: Participants in this group will be told about he stereotype of reggae in making people more calm. They will listen to reggae music over the 4 weeks.	Behavioral: Reggae Stereotypes; Reggae Stereotype Group: Participants in this group will be told about he stereotype of reggae in making people more calm. They will listen to reggae music over the 4 weeks.
Experimental: Traditional Mindfulness; Participants in this group will listen to a traditional mindfulness practice over the 4 weeks	Behavioral: Traditional Mindfulness; Participants will listen to a traditional mindfulness practice over the 4 weeks
Active Comparator: Pain Psychoeducation; Participants listen to the same playlist each week of the 4-weeks. It's an audio recording of the pain psychoeducation video they watch during training. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azwEQXh5enA	Behavioral: Pain psychoeducation; Participants listen to an audio recording of the pain psychoeducation video they watch during training over the 4 weeks. Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azwEQXh5enA

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Pain, Enjoyment, General Activity Scale (PEG)	Pain Intensity: Measure: The PEG scale will be used to assess the magnitude of pain sensations experienced by participants in the past week.	Baseline and 4 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Irvine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 20, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): February 20, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): March 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 18, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 23, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): May 28, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 2, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 29, 2026
• Last Verified: January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Intestinal Diseases; Digestive System Diseases; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Colonic Diseases; Gastroenteritis; Colonic Diseases, Functional; Irritable Bowel Syndrome; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 5116

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No