Author: Michael G Brandel¹, Christine Lin¹, Devon Hennel², Olga Khazen², Julie G Pilitsis³, Sharona Ben-Haim⁴
Affiliation: 1 Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, 200 W. Arbor Drive #8893, USA. 2 Department of Neurscience & Experimental Therapeutics, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA. 3 Department of Biomedical Research, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. 4 Department of Neurosurgery, University of California, 200 W. Arbor Drive #8893, USA. Electronic address: sbenhaim@health.ucsd.edu.
Conference/Journal: Neurosurg Clin N Am
Date published: 2022 Jul 1
Other: Volume ID: 33 , Issue ID: 3 , Pages: 275-279 , Special Notes: doi: 10.1016/j.nec.2022.02.005. , Word Count: 103

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.

Keywords: Chronic pain; Functional neuroimaging; Meditation; Mindfulness; Neural network.

PMID: 35718396 DOI: 10.1016/j.nec.2022.02.005

Mindfulness Meditation in the Treatment of Chronic Pain