Listening to Mozart reduces allergic skin wheal responses and in vitro allergen-specific IgE production in atopic dermatitis patients with latex allergy

In atopic dermatitis patients with latex allergy, listening to Mozart reduced skin wheal responses induced by latex, but not by histamine, whereas listening to Beethoven failed to produce similar results. Listening to Mozart also decreased in vitro total IgE and latex-specific IgE production with concomitant skewing of the cytokine pattern toward the Th1 type, that is, an increase in Th1 cytokine production and decrease in Th2 cytokine production by peripheral blood mononuclear cells, whereas listening to Beethoven failed to do so. These results suggest that therapy using specific types of music may be an effective treatment of allergic diseases.