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Mindfulness meditation provides greater pain relief than placebo

Mindfulness meditation demonstrated greater reductions in pain intensity and unpleasantness compared with sham meditation and a placebo cream, according to data published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The researchers reported that pain relief associated with mindfulness meditation was illustrated by greater activation in areas of the brain associated with cognitive modulation of pain.

"Recent findings have demonstrated that mindfulness meditation significantly reduces pain," Fadel Zeidan, PhD, the associate director of neuroscience at the Wake Forest Center for Integrative Medicine, and colleagues wrote. "Given that the 'gold standard' for evaluating efficacy of behavioral interventions is based on appropriate placebo comparisons, it is imperative that we establish whether there is an effect of supporting meditation-related pain relief above and beyond the effects of placebo."

The researchers evaluated data from 75 participants who were randomly divided into four groups: mindfulness meditation, placebo, sham mindfulness meditation and control. They detailed that the mindfulness meditation group was taught meditation skills, the placebo group received treatment with petrolatum jelly and the sham mindfulness meditation group was just told to take a deep breath and meditate. The control group listened to an audiobook.

Zeidan and colleagues measured efficacy using functional MRI and psychophysical evaluation of pain with the use of heat stimuli. Participants also rated pain unpleasantness and pain intensity before and after pain interventions.

Results showed that, compared with sham meditation, mindfulness meditation provided greater reductions in pain intensity (27% vs. 8%; P = .03) and pain unpleasantness (44% vs. 27%; P = .043).

Additionally, compared with the placebo cream, mindfulness meditation provided greater reductions in pain intensity (27% vs. 11%; P = .032) and pain unpleasantness (44% vs. 13%; P < .001).

Zeidan and colleagues concluded that mindfulness meditation may serve as a beneficial adjunct pain therapy.

"Based on our findings, we believe that as little as four 20-minute daily sessions of mindfulness meditation could enhance pain treatment in a clinical setting," Zeidan said in a press release. "However, given that the present study examined healthy, pain-free volunteers, we cannot generalize our findings to chronic pain patients at this time." – by Chelsea Frajerman Pardes

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.