Mindfulness Meditation in the Treatment of Chronic Pain.
Michael G Brandel, Christine Lin, Devon Hennel, Olga Khazen, Julie G Pilitsis, Sharona Ben-Haim
Neurosurgery clinics of North America July 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1016/j.nec.2022.02.005 (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractChronic pain is a major cause of disability, and standard treatments like medication and surgery often have limited success. Mindfulness-based meditation reduces pain in both chronic pain patients and healthy individuals in experimental settings. Brain imaging studies have identified specific neural mechanisms that may underlie both immediate and long-term pain relief from mindfulness practices.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Review Randomized Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Intervention | Mindfulness-based meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Chronic pain Functional neuroimaging Neural network |
| Key finding | Mindfulness-based meditation reduces pain and engages specific neural mechanisms that may explain short-term and sustained pain relief. |
Abstract
Chronic pain is a leading cause of disability in the United States. Limited efficacy associated with pharmacologic management and surgical interventions in refractory patients has led to further exploration of cognitive and behavioral interventions as both an adjunctive and primary therapeutic modality. Mindfulness-based meditation has shown to be effective in reducing pain in randomized studies of chronic pain patients as well as models of experimentally induced pain in healthy participants. These studies have revealed specific neural mechanisms which may explain both short-term and sustained pain relief associated with mindfulness-based interventions.