How is music therapy currently being used in pediatric pain management?

Assessing and managing pain in children can be more challenging than with adults. Pain is multifaceted in nature, with physiological, sensory, affective, behavioral, cognitive, and sociocultural components; pediatric pain responses, specifically, are modified by the child’s level of development, fear, anxiety, anger, feeling of lack of control or choice, underlying illness, situational factors, and past experiences and should therefore be managed with a multimodal approach. There is a growing body of research investigating the use of complementary, alternative, and integrative modalities to supplement pharmaceutical management of pediatric pain to better treat pain and anxiety in young patients. Of these complementary modalities, music therapy is surfacing as a promising way to reduce pediatric pain, distress, and anxiety in various settings -- such as basic clinical “sticking” procedures, before and after surgery, and during extensive wound and burn care procedures