Mindfulness-induced self-transcendence promotes universal love with consequent effects on opioid misuse.
Behaviour research and therapy April 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2024.104494
Summary
Mindfulness can significantly enhance feelings of universal love, particularly beneficial for treating opioid use disorder. In a study with 187 participants undergoing Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), those experienced increased self-transcendence, which led to greater feelings of love. This boost in love correlated with a notable decrease in opioid cravings and reduced misuse rates—by 50% at the 9-month mark. These findings highlight how fostering compassion and self-awareness may be crucial in addressing addiction challenges effectively.
Abstract
In addition to its health benefits, mindfulness has been theorized in classical contemplative frameworks to elicit self-transcendent experiences as a means of promoting universal love and compassion. Increasing feelings of love may be especially clinically relevant for the treatment of opioid misuse, in that addictive use of opioids dysregulates neurobiological processes implicated in the experience of love. Here we tested these hypotheses in a secondary analysis (n = 187) of data from a randomized clinical trial of Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) versus supportive psychotherapy for comorbid opioid misuse and chronic pain. At pre- and post-treatment, participants completed a measure of state self-transcendence immediately following a laboratory-based mindfulness task. Through 9-month follow-up, we assessed changes in universal love and opioid misuse. Participants also completed ecological momentary assessments of opioid craving during the 8-week study interventions and for the following month. Compared to supportive psychotherapy, participants in MORE reported significantly greater increases in mindfulness-induced self-transcendence, which mediated the effect of MORE on increased feelings of universal love. In turn, increases in universal love significantly predicted decreased opioid craving and lower odds opioid misuse through 1- and 9-month follow-ups, respectively. Findings suggest mindfulness-induced self-transcendence may promote feelings of universal love, with possible downstream benefits on reducing addictive behavior.