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SALT LAKE CITY – Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered that music can relieve pain and inflammation and enhance the effects of painkillers such as ibuprofen and CBD.
Drs. Cameron Metcalf and Greg Bulaj have spent the last few years playing Mozart's music to mice in a laboratory to try to unravel the secrets of treating epilepsy and managing chronic pain. Pain and epilepsy, although they are different conditions, have similar challenges: limited treatment options, lack of debilitating control, and medications that simply are not effective enough. Metcalf and Bulaj think that music (like Mozart) could be the answer.
"Cameron and I are working on developing new drugs for pain and epilepsy," said Bulaj, an associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Utah and senior author of the journal. "I also looked at how drugs can work with music."
Mozart has been shown in various studies to mitigate the negative effects of epilepsy. Bulaj and his team hoped they could learn more about the effects of music on the disorder, but also on the symptoms of chronic pain.
Digital health is a branch of health care that uses digital and technological solutions to health problems. Bulaj is inspired by these new frontiers of medicine and previous studies that had shown that Mozart reduced seizures and limited pain.
Bulaj and his team used mice and rats in this study, controlling the conditions so that they all live in the same environment. The same Mozart compositions demonstrated to aid epilepsy in previous research were used in the study, with discordant portions of smoothed songs with a minor editing to avoid surprising animals.
The mice were exposed to the music three weeks before their participation in the treatment. The control group and the study group were each moved to a different room during the "dark cycle" and in an accommodation facility during the "light cycle" , according to the study. During the "dark cycle", the study mice were exposed to music, while the control group was exposed only to ambient noise.
The mice all received one of four analgesics, including ibuprofen, levetiracetam, cannabidiol (CBD) and the galanin analogue NAX 5055, the study said. Specific wounds were inflicted on the mice to simulate post-surgical pain, and in some cases a virus was induced in mice to seizure epileptic fits.
The results showed that ibuprofen-music couple pain relief improved results by over 90%. The other models showed that the inflammation was reduced by 70%.
"We were looking at inflammatory pain," said Metcalf, assistant professor of research in pharmacology and toxicology and lead author of the paper. "We first asked," Does it reduce inflammation? ". We then investigated whether it reduced swelling alone and in combination with other well established and experimental painkillers. We also looked to see if this reduced the reactions to the pain. "
The results showed that music therapy itself had a little effect, according to Metcalf. However, in combination with various medications, the positive effects on the treatment of pain and inflammation are very obvious. It also seems that there is no need for a lot of painkillers in the mouse system to give results.
"We selected a dose of ibuprofen with a relatively minimal effect," said Metcalf. "In animals that had already been exposed to music, we saw a sharp increase."
The results showed not only a marked decrease in epileptic seizures in the test subjects, but also a decrease in the number of deaths associated with this disease.
"We used a model of epilepsy and we found an anti-epileptic effect," Metcalf explained. "But the most remarkable thing is that we have seen a reduction in the death rate. a mortality rate of up to 50% and we have seen a reduction (mortality rate). "
The researchers hope to explore further whether they can reduce the epileptic mortality rate and control the number of epileptic seizures. This could help prevent sudden unexpected death in epilepsy.
The researchers have already asked to continue their clinical studies in human subjects.
"One way to do this is to understand what music and its components are that produce these kinds of pain-relieving and drug-enhancing effects," said Metcalf.
Bulaj was able to recruit collaborators at a local music school, Gifted Music School, to analyze the compositions to better understand how the structure works.
"They have already identified such things as rhythm, tempo, punctuation, sentences and sequences," Bulaj said. "We hope to find this structure similar to that of Mozart in other classical composers. Maybe (medicinal compositions) will even include Lady Gaga or Katy Perry. "
The study has potential limitations, the largest number of which are mice that hear at different frequencies than humans. The researchers hope that the tests on humans will help answer puzzling questions arising from animal testing.
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