Brief Self-Compassion Training Alters Neural Responses to Evoked Pain for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Pilot Study.
Pain medicine (Malden, Mass.) October 1, 2020 Michael P Berry, Jacqueline Lutz, Zev Schuman-Olivier et al.
A brief self-compassion training (eight contact hours plus two weeks of home practice) reduced clinical pain intensity and disability and increased trait self-compassion and interoceptive awareness in people with chronic low back pain. Brain imaging showed that after training, evoked pressure pain response decreased in the right temporo-parietal junction, and pain anticipation responses increased in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and ventral posterior cingulate cortex. These brain changes were associated with improvements in self-compassion and body awareness. The authors argue that self-compassion may help regulate pain through self-referential, salience-processing, and emotion regulatory brain areas, but note that controlled studies are needed to confirm specificity.