In a four-week mindfulness-based intervention for chronic pain, informal home practice—such as brief breathing spaces and mindful daily activities—was linked to improvements in pain interference, physical function, sleep, anxiety, positive affect, and catastrophizing. Formal guided practices like breath meditation and body scans showed no significant association with any outcome. On average, participants completed informal practice on 3.5 days per week for 8.6 minutes per day, and formal practice on 4.3 days per week for 13.5 minutes per day. The findings suggest that for abbreviated mindfulness programs, the type of home practice matters more than the amount of time spent.
A modified mindfulness program for chronic low back pain, called Mindfulness-Based Pain Reduction (MBPR), was developed and tested in 58 patients. The curriculum added mindful interoceptive exposure to pain, pain neuroscience education, and yoga postures for low back pain. Participants attended 80% of sessions, and two-thirds of those receiving MBPR showed clinically meaningful improvements in pain intensity and interference scores (PEG scores improved >30%). The program was feasible and acceptable, warranting further testing in a randomized controlled trial.