Effectiveness of Jyoti Meditation Patients with Chronic Neck Pain and Psychological Distress–A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Jeitler, M., Brunnhuber, S., Meier, L., et. al.
APS members receive a complimentary subscription to The Journal of Pain, a monthly peer-reviewed scholarly journal that includes original articles related to all aspects of pain, including clinical and basic research, patient care, education, and health policy. The following highlight summarizes a recently published article.
Meditation might be an effective treatment for reducing chronic neck pain, according to research reported in a recent article in The Journal of Pain (Volume 16, Issue 1, January 2015).
Chronic neck pain can lead to serious comorbidities like depression. Patients with chronic neck pain frequently experience distress. Meditation increasingly has been used as a supportive treatment for individuals with chronic pain.
Previous research has shown that chronic pain is associated with distress and that meditation has stress-relieving benefits. German researchers compared the effects of meditation on pain, perceived stress, and psychological well-being. They hypothesized that an 8-week meditation program would decrease pain more effectively than a standardized exercise program and that pain relief would coincide with stress reduction.
For the study, 89 patients with chronic neck pain who showed increased perceived stress were randomized into meditation and exercise program groups. Outcomes were assessed at baseline and after 8 weeks.
Results showed that meditation training significantly reduced pain when compared with the exercise group and pain-related “bothersomeness” decreased more in the meditation group as well. No significant differences between meditation and exercise were found for pain during movement, pain disability, psychological scores, and quality of life, which is consistent with the known benefits of exercise on pain-related outcomes. The authors concluded that meditation has unique benefits for producing pain relief and for pain coping.
