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The role of endogenous opioids in mindfulness and sham mindfulness-meditation for the direct alleviation of evoked chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial.

Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
June 1, 2024
Lora Khatib et al. (12 authors)
Journal ArticleRandomized Controlled TrialHuman StudyClinical
Study Details

Study Goal

The researchers aimed to determine whether mindfulness-meditation could directly attenuate evoked chronic low back pain through non-opioidergic processes, compared to sham mindfulness-meditation.

Results Summary

Both mindfulness and sham mindfulness-meditation significantly reduced evoked chronic pain during saline and naloxone infusion, but mindfulness showed greater pain reduction than sham. Mindfulness also led to lower pain severity and interference scores, suggesting non-reactive appraisal processes uniquely improve chronic low back pain.

Population

59 individuals with chronic low back pain (mean age 46; 30 females).

Effective Dosage

Four sessions of 20 minutes each.

Duration

Short-term (four sessions).

Interactions

None mentioned.

Extracted Claims (9)
InterventionDirectionEndpointPopulationDosageImpactClaim #
mindfulness-meditation
decrease
back pain during saline infusion
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significant reductions
#1
mindfulness-meditation
decrease
back pain during naloxone infusion
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significant reductions
#2
sham mindfulness-meditation
decrease
back pain during saline infusion
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significant reductions
#3
sham mindfulness-meditation
decrease
back pain during naloxone infusion
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significant reductions
#4
mindfulness-meditation
decrease
straight leg-raise induced pain
mindfulness group
-
reported significantly lower
#5
mindfulness-meditation
decrease
Brief Pain Inventory severity scores
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significantly lower
#6
mindfulness-meditation
decrease
Brief Pain Inventory interference scores
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significantly lower
#7
sham mindfulness-meditation
decrease
Brief Pain Inventory severity scores
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significantly lower
#8
sham mindfulness-meditation
decrease
Brief Pain Inventory interference scores
individuals with cLBP
-
associated with significantly lower
#9
Abstract

Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is the most prevalent chronic pain condition. There are no treatments that haven been found to directly assuage evoked cLBP. To this extent, mindfulness-meditation is a promising pain therapy. Yet, it is unclear if meditation can be utilized to directly attenuate evoked chronic pain through endogenous opioids. A double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled clinical trial with a drug crossover design examined if mindfulness-meditation, as compared to sham mindfulness-meditation, attenuated straight leg-raise test evoked chronic pain during intravenous (0.15 mg/kg bolus + 0.15 mg/kg/hour maintenance) naloxone (opioid antagonist) and placebo-saline infusion. Fifty-nine individuals with cLBP (mean age = 46 years; 30 females) completed all study procedures. After the pre-intervention pain testing session, patients were randomized to a four-session (20-min/session) mindfulness (n = 30) or sham mindfulness-meditation (n = 29) intervention. After the interventions, mindfulness and sham mindfulness-meditation were associated with significant reductions in back pain during saline and naloxone infusion when compared to rest (non-meditation) in response to the cLBP-evoking straight leg-raise test. These results indicate that meditation directly reduces evoked chronic pain through non-opioidergic processes. Importantly, after the interventions, the mindfulness group reported significantly lower straight leg-raise induced pain than the sham mindfulness-meditation group during rest (non-meditation) and meditation. Mindfulness and sham mindfulness-meditation training was also associated with significantly lower Brief Pain Inventory severity and interference scores. The pain-relieving effects of mindfulness meditation were more pronounced than a robust sham-mindfulness meditation intervention, suggesting that non-reactive appraisal processes may be uniquely associated with improvements in chronic low-back pain.Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04034004.

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
HumansLow Back PainFemaleMaleMindfulnessMiddle AgedDouble-Blind MethodChronic PainAdultNarcotic AntagonistsNaloxoneCross-Over StudiesMeditationOpioid PeptidesPain MeasurementTreatment Outcome
Study Links
Quality Scores
SafetyNot Assessed
Efficacy85/10
Quality90/10
Citation Metrics
Total Citations3
Citations/Year3.0
Research Impact Scores
APT Score0.50
Weight Score2.98
Normalized Score0.72
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