Nearly 80% of 69 studies on arts and the opioid crisis report positive results
Music makes up most of the evidence, and pain management is where the results are strongest.
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), a US federal agency and the country's largest arts funder, published a report on 22 October on how the arts can help with the opioid crisis. Of the 69 studies it looked at, nearly 80% reported positive findings. The rest were mixed or neutral, and none was uniformly negative.
About 7.1 million Americans aged 12 and over misused opioids in 2025, a figure the NEA quotes from the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The report follows one the NEA published in 2020, which it calls the first federal report on arts-based approaches to pain and substance misuse.
Let's be clear about what the evidence covers. Most of it is music: 56 of the 69 studies, 81%, including music therapy and listening to music. The strongest and most consistent results are for pain management.
The NEA says studies suggest the arts may also help people engage with treatment, feel ready to change and crave less. It adds that this research is less developed than the evidence on music and pain.
So where does that leave dance, theatre or circus? The NEA's announcement doesn't name another art form, in its findings or for the 33 programmes, initiatives and policy or funding mechanisms the report lists. They work in clinics and communities, including with veterans, Indigenous people, young people and people who have been through the justice system.
Concretely, if you run arts work in health or community settings, this is US federal evidence you can point to. It's strongest for music and pain. The report asks researchers, drug counsellors, and arts and health professionals to work together to test and scale arts programmes, and has eight case studies.
