Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Annals of Behavioral Medicine September 22, 2016 L. Hilton, S. Hempel, Brett A. Ewing et al.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials found low-quality evidence that mindfulness meditation is associated with a small decrease in pain compared with various control conditions in adults with chronic pain. Statistically significant improvements were also seen for depression symptoms and quality of life. Only seven of the included trials reported on safety. The authors conclude that while mindfulness meditation improves pain, depression, and quality of life, additional well-designed, large-scale trials are needed to provide more definitive estimates of its efficacy.