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.
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.
| Intervention | Direction | Endpoint | Population | Dosage | Impact | Claim # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 |
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.