Influence of mindfulness training on attention processing in individuals with chronic pain

People with chronic pain who practice mindfulness react faster on attention tasks than those with chronic pain who do not meditate. In a study of 128 participants, those with chronic pain who meditated showed quicker reaction times on both a general attention test and a pain-related attention test compared to non-meditators with chronic pain. Non-meditators relied more on cues to alert their attention. However, no difference was found between the pain groups in attentional bias to pain-related words. The findings suggest mindfulness practice may help mitigate some attention difficulties linked to chronic pain.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Abstract Objective The dynamic impact of chronic pain on attention can lead to impairments in overall cognitive functioning. Mindfulness is a practice often adopted for pain management that includes elements of attention training. It is thought to improve the experiential acceptance of pain, thus reducing pain-sensitivity and pain-related attentional biases. The aim of this study was to examine whether experience with mindfulness is associated with altered attentional functioning in participants with chronic pain. Methods We collected an online sample of 128 participants across four groups: 31 individuals with chronic pain who practice mindfulness (Pain-Meditators), 29 individuals with chronic pain who have not practiced mindfulness (PainNon-Meditators), 32 healthy individuals who practice mindfulness, and 36 healthy individuals who do not practice mindfulness. General attentional functioning was measured using the using the Short-Attention Network Task (short-ANT) and attention bias to pain was measured using the Pain Dot-Probe task. Results An overall effect in reaction time (RT) was found across both (all p <.05), with post-hoc analyses finding that Pain-Meditators reacted faster on both the short-ANT ( p = 0.014) and dot-probe attention tasks (p = < 0.001) compared to PainNon-meditators. PainNon-meditators showed higher alerting network scores on the short-ANT than all other groups ( p = 0.005), indicating more reliance on cues to alert attention. No differences were found between the pain groups in attentional bias to pain-related words ( p = 0.84). Conclusion The results provide evidence that mindfulness practice is associated with altered attention performance in individuals with chronic pain and may mitigate the effects of chronic pain on attention functioning. Our results provide some of the only experimental research to investigate the effects of mindfulness training on attention processing in individuals with chronic pain.