Neurophysiological Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness Meditation-Based Pain Relief: an Updated Review.

Mindfulness meditation reduces pain through brain processes that differ from placebo and vary with meditative training. Neuroimaging and randomized controlled studies show that mindfulness-based therapies reliably lower both experimentally induced and clinical pain by engaging multiple, unique, non-opioidergic mechanisms. These effects occur across a spectrum of chronic pain conditions and involve psychological, physiological, and neural modulation of how sensory events are evaluated and appraised. The findings highlight the potential of mindfulness-based approaches for producing long-lasting improvements in pain-related symptoms.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This review examines recent (2016 onwards) neuroscientific findings on the mechanisms supporting mindfulness-associated pain relief. To date, its clear that mindfulness lowers pain by engaging brain processes that are distinct from placebo and vary across meditative training level. Due to rapid developments in the field of contemplative neuroscience, an update review on the neuroimaging studies focused on mindfulness, and pain is merited. Mindfulness-based therapies produce reliably reductions in a spectrum of chronic pain conditions through psychological, physiological, and neural mechanisms supporting the modulation of evaluation and appraisal of innocuous and noxious sensory events. Neuroimaging and randomized control studies confirm that mindfulness meditation reliably reduces experimentally induced and clinical pain by engaging multiple, unique, non-opioidergic mechanisms that are distinct from placebo and which vary across meditative training level. These promising findings underscore the potential of mindfulness-based approaches to produce long-lasting improvements in pain-related symptomology.