Examining the Effects of Processed Music on Chronic Pain
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03083977. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Chronic pain is a common ailment in aging populations and often co-occurs with altered regulation of the autonomic nervous system. Nociceptive pathways (i.e., those that transmit pain signals) are integrated with autonomic circuits throughout the body and therapies that are successful in reducing pain concurrently alter autonomic functions, even when they are not directly designed to do so. It is possible that interventions that target the autonomic circuits that regulate pain responses may help reduce pain in chronic pain sufferers. The proposed study will examine whether an intervention that targets the autonomic nervous system via filtered music can reduce pain, a hypothesis derived from the Polyvagal Theory. The Polyvagal Theory describes how function and structure of the vertebrate autonomic nervous system changed during evolution. The theory is named for the vagus, a major cranial nerve that regulates bodily state. An evolutionary "old" branch of this nerve innervates structures below the diaphragm and its dysfunction is linked to lower body organ and tissue pain. Regulation of the vagus nerve is linked with specific auditory cues based on our evolutionary heritage and the physics of the middle ear. This study is designed to test whether processed music designed to stimulate vagal function can decrease chronic pain. The Listening Project Protocol, the processed music used in this intervention, has previously been shown to effectively stimulate the function of the vagus nerve (see stimulus description below). Specific Aims: Aim I: To examine whether The Listening Project Protocol, a non-invasive audio intervention, can be effective for reducing chronic pain in a sample of older adults. Hypothesis: Five 1-hour sessions of the Listening Project Protocol will reduce pain Aim II: To examine whether increased regulation via the autonomic nervous system accounts for the decrease in pain if the intervention is successful. Hypothesis: Pain reduction will coincide with improved autonomic function by the myelinated vagus nerve (measured by respiratory sinus arrhythmia, see below) as well as decrease in the reactivity of autonomic functions in everyday experiences (measured by the Body Perception Questionnaire, see below)
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03083977
- Recruitment status
- Terminated
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 8 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- Not listed
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jun 21, 2017
- Primary completion
- Aug 27, 2019
- Completion
- Aug 27, 2019
- Last update posted
- Mar 6, 2022
2017 – 2019
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meadowood Retirement Community | Bloomington | Indiana | 47408 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03083977, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Mar 6, 2022 · Synced Sep 9, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03083977 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.