Effects of Savoring Meditation on Positive Emotions and Pain-Related Brain Function: A Mechanistic Randomized Controlled Trial in People With Rheumatoid Arthritis.
Patrick H. Finan, Carly Hunt, Michael L. Keaser, Katie Smith, Sheera F. Lerman, Clifton O. Bingham, Frederick S. Barrett, Eric L Garland, Fadel Zeidan, David A Seminowicz
Journal of Pain July 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2024.01.343 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Randomized controlled trial Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 44 |
| Population | Patients with physician-confirmed rheumatoid arthritis |
| Interventions | Savoring Meditation Slow Breathing |
| Duration | Four 20-minute sessions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Pain Positive emotion Savoring FMRI |
| Citations | 18 |
| Key findings | Savoring Meditation significantly reduced experimental pain intensity ratings, increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex cerebral blood flow and its connectivity with the caudate during pain, and improved positive emotions and anhedonic symptoms compared to Slow Breathing. |
Abstract
Positive emotions are a promising target for intervention in chronic pain, but mixed findings across trials to date suggest that existing interventions may not be optimized to efficiently engage the target. The aim of the current pilot mechanistic randomized controlled trial was to test the effects of a positive emotion-enhancing intervention called Savoring Meditation on pain-related neural and behavioral targets in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Participants included 44 patients with a physician-confirmed diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (n = 29 included in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) analyses), who were randomized to either Savoring Meditation or a Slow Breathing control. Both meditation interventions were brief (four 20-minute sessions). Self-report measures were collected pre-and post-intervention. An fMRI task was conducted at post-intervention, during which participants practiced the meditation technique on which they had been trained while exposed to non-painful and painful thermal stimuli. Savoring significantly reduced experimental pain intensity ratings relative to rest (P < .001). Savoring also increased cerebral blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and increased connectivity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and caudate during noxious thermal stimulation relative to Slow Breathing (z = 2.3 voxelwise, false discovery rate cluster corrected P = .05). Participants in the Savoring condition also reported significantly increased positive emotions (ps < .05) and reduced anhedonic symptoms (P < .01) from pre- to post-intervention. These findings suggest that Savoring recruits reward-enhancing corticostriatal circuits in the face of pain, and future work should extend these findings to evaluate if these mechanisms of Savoring are associated with improved clinical pain outcomes in diverse patient populations. PERSPECTIVE: Savoring Meditation is a novel positive emotion-enhancing intervention designed for patients with chronic pain. The present findings provide preliminary evidence that Savoring Meditation is acutely analgesic, and engages neural and subjective emotional targets that are relevant to pain self-management. Future work should evaluate the clinical translation of these findings.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Healthy employees in a work environment | 2003 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 41 |
| Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2000 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 145 |
| Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Working adults | 2008 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 139 |
| Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Undergraduate Chinese students | 2007 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 40 |
| Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2004 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 73 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Assessing the effect of Loving-Kindness Meditation on pain and social well-being using a randomized controlled trial design. PLoS One September 16, 2026
- Brain mechanisms supporting mindfulness-based chronic pain relief: A randomized, sham-mindfulness meditation controlled mechanistic clinical trial protocol. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications June 27, 2026
- Mindfulness meditation reduces pain more effectively than slow-breathing meditation: the mediating role of respiration. Pain March 1, 2026
- Mindfulness Meditation Combined with eCASH-Based Nursing for Cesarean Section in Preeclampsia: A Retrospective Study on Perioperative Pain and Recovery. International journal of women's health 2026
- Mindfulness Meditation and Placebo Modulate Distinct Multivariate Neural Signatures to Reduce Pain. Biological Psychiatry 2025
Cites 11
- Mindfulness training increases momentary positive emotions and reward experience in adults vulnerable to depression: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology July 18, 2011
- Does Mindfulness Meditation Improve Anxiety and Mood Symptoms? A Review of the Controlled Research The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry April 1, 2007
- The Mindfulness-to-Meaning Theory: Extensions, Applications, and Challenges at the Attention–Appraisal–Emotion Interface Psychological Inquiry October 2, 2015
- Restructuring Reward Mechanisms in Nicotine Addiction: A Pilot fMRI Study of Mindfulness‐Oriented Recovery Enhancement for Cigarette Smokers Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2017
- Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement remediates anhedonia in chronic opioid use by enhancing neurophysiological responses during savoring of natural rewards. Psychological Medicine April 1, 2023
and 6 more in the library