Mindfulness meditation really does reduce pain

Mindfulness meditation really does reduce pain—and it’s not a placebo effect.

Brain imagery has revealed the positive effects the meditation has on neural patterns and areas that control pain, researchers from the University of California at San Diego have discovered.

People who meditated reported significant reductions in the intensity of their pain, and their positive reports were backed up by brain imagery that saw real differences that weren’t there in another group that was given a placebo cream that they were told was a pain-reliever.

But scientists had assumed that it was all placebo—mind over matter—and that explained any benefits seen with mindfulness meditation.

The Californian researchers have put that belief to bed.  “Mindfulness meditation is a direct intervention for chronic pain rather than as a way to engage the placebo effect,” said Fadel Zeidan, one of the researchers.

The researchers recruited 115 people, who were either taught mindfulness medicine or given a sham pain-reliever, while a painful heat stimulus was applied to their backs.  Their brains were scanned before and after the procedure.

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