Music is tied to emotions and can bring back memories, but can it cause cravings for addictive substances? A new study explored the music to emotions link and extended it to the emotions to addiction link to see if music can trigger addictive cravings.
"Strong emotions are one of the most widely cited maintaining factors for substance misuse . . . the substance numbs or alleviates negative internal states," said Genevieve Dingle, one of the study's authors, according to a press release. "Therefore, understanding how substance users emotionally respond to music has potentially important implications for substance use treatment."
Thirty-eight study subjects in Queensland, Australia were tested: 19 patients in a residential treatment facility for substance use disorder (SUD) and 19 healthy control participants. For the initial stage of testing, the treatment patients were asked to choose one "urge" song (that gave them the urge to use) and one "clean" song (a tune that inspired them to stay sober). After listening to the "urge" songs, the group reported higher cravings than after they listened to the "clean" song.
In part two of the study, both groups listened to three classical pieces. "One song has been shown to elicit peaceful feelings; another, happiness; and another, sadness," the press release explained. "Participants then rated how the songs made them feel. Individuals in the control group had a significantly stronger response to the happy music than those in the treatment group. Also, the treatment group rated the sad music as more pleasant than the control group."
"People with depression show more blunted emotional responses to musical excerpts representative of a range of emotions," said Dingle, which could have affected their reactions to the songs.
Study authors say knowledge of how music affects SUD could provide a boost to treatments. "It may be useful to evoke strong emotions during therapy . . . to explore and learn to tolerate these emotions in a substance-free environment," Dingle added.
The study was published in the journal Psychology of Music.
