Music as an Adjunct to Ketamine Therapy for Chronic Pain

The self-selected preferred music intervention will expose participants to music chosen based on personal tastes. Patients will be instructed to compile a playlist lasting approximately 1 hour, but preferably over 1 hour (to avoid repetition or moments without music) of their favorite music. They will be instructed to select songs that they find extremely pleasurable to listen to. Participants will be instructed to select songs that will have a higher likelihood to facilitate relaxation and introspection. This does not need to be an all-time favorite selection, but rather the music that they currently enjoy listening to the most.

The therapist-selected music intervention will expose participants to a curated playlist specifically designed for psychedelic treatment by expert Music Therapists, which was used in a previous study to investigate the additive hemodynamic effects of music during ketamine infusions for depression. Patients will be randomly exposed to one of 9 available playlists, all containing songs without lyrics.

The silence intervention will expose patients to the same therapeutic procedures, in the same room and context, and with the same noise-cancelling headphones. The purpose is to cancel any potentially perturbing background noise, as no music will be played.