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August 26, 2022
A large study conducted by American researchers reveals that mindfulness meditation can have a positive impact on chronic pain and on taking painkillers.
What if we could manage physical pain through meditation? A new study published in the newspaper JAMA Internal Medicinetherapy-based Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), in French, the improvement of healing through mindfulness, reveals that this therapy could reduce chronic pain. The effects could last up to nine months. It is the first large study demonstrating the impact of meditation and psychology on opioid usea powerful painkiller, and chronic pain in people who have been prescribed opioid painkillers.
“Remarkably, the effects of MORE seem to strengthen over time”declares in a press release Eric Garland, lead author of the study who developed MORE and has been studying it for more than a decade. “One possible explanation is that these people are incorporating the skills they learned from MORE into their daily lives. There is nothing else that works as well for pain relief and curbing opioid abuse. “
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A significant drop in opioid intake
To reach this conclusion, the researchers followed 250 adults experiencing chronic pain on long-term opioid treatment who met this criteria for “opioid abuse”. Most of the participants were taking oxycodone. or hydrocodon and reported at least two painful conditions and met clinical criteria for major depression.More than half of the participants also had a diagnosable opioid use disorder.
Symptoms of pain, depression, anxiety, stress… After dividing them into two groups, one of classic psychotherapy and the other of mindfulness meditation, the researchers observed behaviors vis-à-vis their taking of opioids for nine months. After nine months, the study reveals that 45% of patients in the mindfulness meditation group no longer abused opioids and 36% have reduced their consumption by half or more. They also reported significant symptom improvements in pain, a decrease in the urge to take opioids, and a reduction in symptoms of depression.
“Rather than getting caught up in the pain or the urge, we teach people how to step back and observe this experience from the perspective of an objective witness. When they can do this, patients begin to recognize that this that they really are is greater than any thought or sensation. They are not defined by their experiences of pain or thirst. Their true nature is something more.” explains the scientist.