Participants with chronic pain who received mindfulness-based interventions were less likely to report psychological and physical worsening than those receiving usual care. In a randomized trial of 708 patients with chronic pain, 61% of whom had a mental health diagnosis, usual care participants more often reported increases in disturbing memories, sadness, anxiousness, fatigue, isolation, loneliness, and feeling upset by reminders of the past. The mindfulness interventions did not appear to cause harm for this population with high mental health comorbidities.
An 8-week Mindful Self-Compassion group was delivered to 26 male veterans with moral injury, PTSD, and substance use disorder. Recruitment was easy and dropout was low (30.8%). Participants reported satisfaction. Clinically meaningful improvements were observed: self-compassion increased, while PTSD symptoms, guilt, shame, and number of drinking days decreased. The open-label design and small sample prevent conclusions about efficacy, but results suggest further study is warranted.