The relationship between musicianship and pain. Is chronic pain and its management a problem for student musicians only?

Neuro-biological research into chronic pain has presented reliable evidence of distinct cortical and spinal alterations in chronic pain sufferers compared to healthy individuals. Furthermore, research suggests that musicians are especially vulnerable to frequent and extended pain, supported by recent neurological investigations into musicians’ brain plasticity. However, chronic pain is not simply acute pain plus time, but a separate condition. Little is known about musicians’ emotions and chronic pain-related behaviors. Acquiring such knowledge is a crucial step in understanding how chronic pain is processed by musicians. This study investigated pain catastrophizing as one of the pain-related behaviors and emotions alongside six complementary variables: anxiety, depression, depersonalization, burnout, coping strategies and professional identity. 102 under- and postgraduate students from various higher education institutions participated in an online survey. Students were allocated to three groups according to their main study subject and type of institution: music college musicians, university musicians and university non-musicians. Group testing showed that university non-musicians’ pain catastrophizing was significantly worse compared to music college musicians. Music college musicians and university musicians were less prone to maladaptive pain processes, despite perceiving pain for significantly longer periods of time. This novel finding indicates that chronic pain does not inevitably lead to dysfunctional pain processing for musicians and should be reflected accordingly in order to optimize pain-control. The bio-psycho-socio model of chronic pain provides the most robust framework for future research, with the aim of improving care and wellbeing provision for the management of chronic pain in musicians.