Pain acceptance as a change mechanism for mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for migraine.
Journal of behavioral medicine June 1, 2024 Rachel D Best, Ali Ozmeral, Amy S Grinberg et al.
Pain acceptance, especially the activity engagement component, appears to be a key mechanism by which Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Migraine (MBCT-M) reduces headache-related disability. In a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial with 60 participants, pain acceptance, pain willingness, and activity engagement all increased over time in both the MBCT-M and waitlist/treatment-as-usual groups. Only activity engagement increased more in the MBCT-M group. Changes in pain acceptance, pain willingness, and activity engagement each mediated the relationship between MBCT-M and reduced disability. The findings support the importance of pain acceptance, particularly activity engagement, in MBCT-M.