Center for Integrative and Complementary Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, University Hospital of Lausanne, The Sense and University of Lausanne, 1011 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Mindfulness-based interventions reduce chronic pain, and a secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials (480 patients on long-term opioid therapy) suggests that nondual awareness—a state of attenuated self-other distinction—partly explains this effect. Participants in an 8-week mindfulness program (MORE) showed significantly lower pain severity and interference than a supportive therapy control group, along with greater increases in nondual awareness. Path analyses indicated that gains in nondual awareness mediated the reductions in pain severity and interference, and nondual awareness was a stronger mediator than the mindfulness facet of nonreactivity. The findings link mindfulness-induced nondual awareness to chronic pain relief, and future work should explore neurobiological mechanisms and other interventions that foster nondual awareness.
Mindfulness meditation programs can help people cope with psychological or physical symptoms such as pain, but they remain uncommon in French-speaking somatic clinical settings despite scientific validation. This article describes three mindfulness meditation programs offered at Lausanne University Hospital to people living with HIV, cancer, or chronic pain, and discusses challenges related to participant involvement and program implementation in a Swiss teaching hospital.