Music as medicine

Sean Young's myriad interests and areas of study never seemed to have a common theme.

"People keep telling me to focus on something," he lamented to his grandmother at one point. She advised him to keep doing what he loves, searching for ways to make an impact, and the dots would connect. Young's recent research showing a link between listening to jazz and a reduction of chronic pain has proved his grandmother correct.

Who else but a UC Irvine professor of informatics and emergency medicine who grew up in Newport Beach and was influenced by Orange County's music scene could meld these disparate pursuits? Young studied ethnomusicology at UCLA and worked in the music industry. He earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford University and has spent the past 15 years exploring digital health, artificial intelligence and how those topics intersect with public health.

"It feels amazing to be able to integrate my background in music and the music industry with my academic career in technology and medicine," Young says of his latest work. "There's something about music. You can talk to anyone. It's a nice way of connecting with people."

His groundbreaking study, "Mindful Jazz and Preferred Music Interventions Reduce Pain Among Patients with Chronic Pain and Anxiety: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial," set out to determine whether listening to jazz - with its unpredictable nature - could make people more comfortable with the unpredictability of life. Mindfulness practices have been shown to reduce anxiety and stress, but many people in pain can't or won't sit and breathe mindfully for an hour.

The research is funded in part by the National Center on Complementary and Integrative Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, both part of the National Institutes of Health.

"This research is novel in many ways," Young says. "It provides a new way to leverage science on mindfulness, it teaches people to listen to jazz the way the musician experiences it, and it teaches people to listen to music and be truly present."

The results showed a significant decrease in pain and anxiety for those who mindfully listened to jazz, which could lead to a reduction in opioids for patients. "I'm interested in understanding how sound can affect health," Young says. "We could see a future where certain components of sound or music are being prescribed to patients."

He didn't start out as a jazz aficionado. As an undergraduate, Young took a jazz class and admitted that he wasn't a fan. The instructor suggested he listen to the album "We Get Requests," by Oscar Peterson.

And now? "When we teach study participants how to listen," Young says, "the opening song we teach is from that album: 'Have You Met Miss Jones?'"

He recently joined the group Starting 5, which plays various genres and has local gigs lined up with The Offspring and 311 later this year. "This research has gotten me back into playing music," he says. "Bass is my main instrument, but I also play guitar, violin, tabla, ukulele. I love world music instruments."

Young returned to Orange County in 2019, arriving at UC Irvine after working at UCLA as well as with NASA and Universal/Interscope Records. He's the author of "Stick with It," a bestseller about how to make lasting behavioral changes, and the executive director of the UC Institute for Prediction Technology - all of which highlights his eclecticism.

"I've always been extremely interdisciplinary - working with computer scientists, engineers, public health and medical people," Young says. "I think incorporating musicians and people who are experts in arts can drive this. I hope we can come up with a whole new science and really have an impact on people's lives."

Young is the executive director of the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology, which will hosting on Sept. 22 at the inaugural Music & Health Conference at UCLA. The conference will bring together researchers, musicians, clinicians and industry professionals to explore the cutting-edge intersection of music and health outcomes. This interdisciplinary event will feature research presentations, expert panels, and live musical performances showcasing how music interventions can improve well-being and mental health. Young will be a featured speaker.