"That’s what researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation found. The study team recruited 60 people who had been suffering from chronic pain and had them listen to an hour of music every day for a week. The study participants had been in pain for an average of six and a half years. They suffered from osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis. The group average for daily pain was rated as six on a 10 point scale; their worst pain exceeded nine out of the 10 points. The participants were divided into three groups. The first could choose the music they listened to on a headset for an hour every day for a week; the second group got relaxing tapes that featured piano, jazz, orchestra, harp and synthesizer. The third group didn’t listen to music at all. The study found that listening to music for an hour a day cut pain by up to 21 percent and also reduced depression associated with the pain by up to 25 percent. In addition to the lessening of pain and depression, results showed that music also affected the way participants felt about the pain – up to 18 percent felt less disabled and up to eight percent reported feeling more power over their pain than those in the control group. The study was published in the June, 2006, issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing."
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-05/bpl-ltm052406.php