The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
July 28, 2010
Fadel Zeidan, Susan K. Johnson, Nakia S. Gordon et al.
323 citations
Three days of brief mindfulness meditation training (one hour total) reduced negative mood, depression, fatigue, confusion, and heart rate in 82 undergraduates with no prior meditation experience, compared to both a sham meditation group and a control group. The improvements exceeded those attributable to demand characteristics, indicating genuine beneficial effects of brief meditation on mood and cardiovascular variables.
Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
April 24, 2013
Fadel Zeidan, Katherine T. Martucci, Robert Kraft et al.
196 citations
Mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety by engaging brain regions that regulate emotion and self-referential thought. In fifteen healthy novice meditators, four days of training lowered state anxiety during meditation sessions but not during a simple breath-attention task. Anxiety relief correlated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior insula. Greater default-mode activity in the posterior cingulate cortex during meditation was linked to higher anxiety, suggesting difficulty controlling self-referential thoughts. The findings indicate that mindfulness meditation attenuates anxiety through mechanisms involved in regulating self-referential thought processes.
Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine
May 4, 2020
Joel Castellanos, C. Leonard Woolley, Kelly Bruno et al.
118 citations
Chronic pain develops through complex mechanisms involving strengthened neural circuitry from repeated pain signals, leading to peripheral and central sensitization. Psychedelics, through serotonin 2A receptor agonism, may 'reset' brain functional connectivity involved in central neuropathic pain. They have a favorable safety profile compared to opioid analgesics. Clinical evidence for chronic pain is limited, but studies over 50 years show potential benefit for cancer pain, phantom limb pain, and cluster headache. The mechanisms are unclear but may involve similarities between psychedelic activation pathways and nociceptive modulation. Functional connectivity changes from psychedelics could help reverse neural changes in chronic pain. Further research is needed given the opioid epidemic and limited non-opioid options.
The journal of pain
July 1, 2024
Patrick H Finan, Carly Hunt, Michael L Keaser et al.
18 citations
A pilot mechanistic randomized controlled trial tested a positive emotion-enhancing intervention called Savoring Meditation against a Slow Breathing control in 44 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Savoring significantly reduced experimental pain intensity ratings relative to rest and increased cerebral blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, as well as connectivity between that region and the caudate during painful stimulation. Participants in the Savoring condition also reported significantly increased positive emotions and reduced anhedonic symptoms from pre- to post-intervention. The findings suggest that Savoring recruits reward-enhancing corticostriatal circuits in the face of pain, warranting future work on clinical pain outcomes.
Mindfulness
January 1, 2023
Eric L Garland, R Lynae Roberts, Adam W Hanley et al.
14 citations
A new measure, the Mindful Reappraisal of Pain Sensations Scale (MRPS), was developed and validated across multiple studies. The scale captures how mindfulness helps people shift from catastrophic pain appraisals to viewing pain as a harmless sensory signal. In samples of opioid-treated chronic pain patients, the MRPS showed a single-factor structure and good convergent and divergent validity. Mindfulness training via Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) increased MRPS scores more than supportive psychotherapy. Changes in MRPS scores statistically mediated the effect of MORE on reducing chronic pain severity through 9-month follow-up, indicating the MRPS measures a key analgesic mechanism involving attentional disengagement and interoceptive exposure.
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
June 1, 2024
Lora Khatib, Jon G Dean, Valeria Oliva et al.
9 citations
Mindfulness meditation directly reduces evoked chronic low back pain through non-opioidergic processes, not by activating the body's opioid system. In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial with a drug crossover design, 59 individuals with chronic low back pain completed a four-session mindfulness or sham mindfulness-meditation intervention. During intravenous naloxone (an opioid blocker) or saline infusion, both mindfulness and sham mindfulness groups showed significant pain reductions during meditation compared to rest. However, the mindfulness group reported significantly lower pain than the sham group, and its effects were more pronounced, suggesting unique benefits from non-reactive appraisal processes. Pain severity and interference scores also decreased.
Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging
April 1, 2025
Saampras Ganesan, Fernando A Barrios, Ishaan Batta et al.
6 citations
Meditation practices, which have shown therapeutic benefits for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, have been studied with neuroimaging over the past decade. However, existing neuroscientific models are based on small, heterogeneous datasets, limiting generalizability and replicability. The ENIGMA-Meditation consortium is the first worldwide collaborative effort to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of globally distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and address multidomain heterogeneity in meditation practice types, experience, and experimental design. The consortium will generate rigorous neuroscientific insights into the mechanisms underlying meditation's therapeutic effects on psychological and cognitive attributes.
medRxiv
September 8, 2023
Patrick H. Finan, Carly Hunt, Michael L. Keaser et al.
6 citations
preprint
A brief Savoring Meditation intervention, compared to Slow Breathing, reduced experimental pain intensity ratings in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. It increased cerebral blood flow in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and connectivity between that region and the caudate during painful thermal stimulation. Participants also reported increased positive emotions and reduced anhedonic symptoms from before to after the intervention. These results suggest that Savoring Meditation engages reward-related brain circuits during pain, which may inform future work on clinical pain outcomes.
Frontiers in pain research (Lausanne, Switzerland)
January 1, 2023
Ramakrishnan Mani, Divya Bharatkumar Adhia, Sharon Awatere et al.
3 citations
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic pain condition linked to altered brain activity. Self-regulation training, such as mindfulness meditation (MM) and electroencephalography neurofeedback (EEG-NF), may reduce pain. This double-blind, three-arm randomized controlled feasibility trial will compare MM plus usual care, EEG-NF plus usual care, and usual care alone. Participants with knee OA will be recruited from the community and healthcare practices; interventions involve 20-minute sessions, four times weekly for three weeks. Feasibility measures include recruitment, adherence, retention, and safety. Secondary outcomes are assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and at three months. Qualitative interviews will explore participants' experiences, barriers, facilitators, and acceptability, including Māori perspectives. Results will inform a full randomized controlled trial.
April 8, 2024
Saampras Ganesan, Aki Tsuchiyagaito, Greg J. Siegle et al.
2 citations
preprint
Meditation practices, which have been adapted into manualized interventions for conditions like depression, pain, addiction, and anxiety, show therapeutic promise, but their neuroscientific basis remains unclear. Current neuroimaging studies rely on small, heterogeneous datasets that vary in practice types, participant experience, clinical targets, and imaging methods, limiting generalizability and replicability. To address this, the ENIGMA-Meditation consortium was formed as a global collaboration to conduct systematic meta- and mega-analyses of distributed neuroimaging data using standardized methods. This framework aims to improve statistical power and rigorously characterize the neural mechanisms underlying meditation's effects on psychological and cognitive attributes, advancing the field of contemplative neuroscience.