Written by Angeline A. De Leon, Staff Writer. This study of 15 mindfulness meditation practitioners suggests an analgesic effect similar to endogenous opioids and may offer powerful therapeutic benefits for acute pain sufferers.
Mindfulness is characterized by a conscious, purposeful, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment. Based on ancient Eastern philosophy, the practice of mindfulness meditation has witnessed renewed interest in recent years, with increasing scientific applications in the treatment of stress, mood disorders, and even acute and chronic pain 1. Research has linked mindfulness to anatomical changes in the brain, leading to increases in gray matter density, for instance 2, which may explain its beneficial effects on cognitive and emotional control 3. The neural mechanisms which enable mindfulness to produce analgesic effects similar to endogenous opioids (the body’s pain-relieving system), however, are still being studied. To investigate whether mindfulness meditation’s modulation of pain involves endogenous opioid pathways, a 2016 study by Israeli researchers employed a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study involving the use of opioid blockers following pain exposure.
Participants consisted of a total of 15 healthy, experienced practitioners of mindfulness meditation who reported at least one hour of practice three times weekly for over one year. Before and after a session of natural mindfulness meditation, participants rated the pain and unpleasantness of a cold stimulus (involving sustained immersion of the hand in icy water). Following random assignment to either 0.1 mg/kg of an opioid antagonist (intravenous naloxone) or a placebo (intravenous saline), subjects were instructed to meditate once more and rate the same painful stimulus again.
Statistical analyses yielded the following key findings:
1) A significant effect of time on ratings of pain [F(1,13) = 19.01, p < 0.001] and unpleasantness [F(1,13) = 22.85, p < 0.001]; a significant effect of condition on ratings of pain [F(2,26) = 4.62, p < 0.2] and unpleasantness [F(2,26) = 9.01, p < 0.2]; and a significant interaction between time and condition for ratings of pain [F(2,26) = 3.68, p < 0.04] and unpleasantness [F(2,26) = 4.61, p < 0.04].
2) Relative to baseline, pain and unpleasantness scores also significantly decreased following mindfulness meditation (from 6.11 +/- 0.46 to 4.21 +/-0.5 for pain; from 5.8 +/- 0.47 to 3.4 +/- 0.44 for unpleasantness, p < 0.00005 for both), as well as after placebo administration, but not following naloxone.
Evidence from the study confirms the capacity of mindfulness meditation to produce profound analgesic effects, also showing for the first time that such effects are reversible by an opioid antagonist. This indicates that meditation involves the physiological recruitment of endogenous opioid pathways, suggesting that mindfulness practice can not only tap into cognitive and emotional brain processes, but sensory pathways as well. For patients suffering from acute pain, developing a practice of mindfulness meditation may have powerful therapeutic benefits. Whether observational findings apply to individuals with chronic pain is an open question that requires further investigation in a clinical population.
Source: Sharon H, Maron-Katz A, Simon EB, et al. Mindfulness meditation modulates pain through endogenous opioids. American Journal of Medicine. 2016; 129(7): 755-758. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2016.03.002.
© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Posted May 9, 2017.
Angeline A. De Leon, MA, graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010, completing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a concentration in neuroscience. She received her master’s degree from The Ohio State University in 2013, where she studied clinical neuroscience within an integrative health program.
References:
- Reiner K, Tibi L, Lipsitz JD. Do Mindfulness‐Based Interventions Reduce Pain Intensity? A Critical Review of the Literature. Pain Medicine. 2013;14(2):230-242.
- Hölzel BK, Lazar SW, Gard T, Schuman-Olivier Z, Vago DR, Ott U. How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on psychological science. 2011;6(6):537-559.
- Maron-Katz A, Ben-Simon E, Sharon H, Gruberger M, Cvetkovic D. A neuroscientific perspective on meditation. Psychology of meditation. 2013:7-10.
