A systematic review of 16 randomized controlled trials examined whether meditation practices can reduce pain and anxiety during the perioperative period. Among eight studies measuring pain after invasive procedures, five reported improvements and three found no change. Ten studies assessed anxiety: nine showed decreased anxiety levels, while one reported no change. The evidence suggests that various meditation techniques may help alleviate pain and anxiety for patients undergoing surgeries or other invasive procedures, but more prospective research is needed to confirm routine effectiveness.
Mindfulness-based interventions for adolescents with chronic pain are associated with improvements in pain intensity, catastrophizing, acceptance, interference, functioning, quality of life, depression, and anxiety, with moderate to large effect sizes at follow-up. A systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 studies including 323 adolescents found significant within-group improvements across all outcomes, though heterogeneity was moderate to high and certainty low due to risk of bias and pre-post designs. Variable-length interventions showed greater pre-post changes than standardized long interventions. Rigorous randomized controlled trials are needed to substantiate these results.