New research has found compelling evidence that meditation is more effective for pain relief than placebo treatments. A study published in the Journal of Biological Psychiatry has disproved a long-standing scientific debate that meditation works from the power of suggestion, similar to placebo treatments. The UC San Diego and Dartmouth College led study enlisted 115 healthy participants and randomly divided them into four groups; mindfulness meditation, sham meditation, placebo cream, or a control group. Participants were exposed to harmless but painful heat, and the mindful meditation group was instructed to focus on their breath and observe thoughts and emotions without judgment for 20 minutes. The sham meditation group was told to do deep breathing, the placebo cream group applied the product to the affected area and the control group rested for the 20-minute session. Participants then underwent pain testing in an MRI scanner, allowing researchers to identify neural signatures associated with different ways the brain processes pain. The study showed that a placebo and meditation use different neural pathways, with mindfulness meditation being the most effective for reducing pain and its emotional impact. Sham meditation had minimal effects, while the placebo cream affected brain patterns associated with beliefs and expectations. “By separating pain from the self and relinquishing evaluative judgment, mindfulness meditation is able to directly modify how we experience pain in a way that uses no drugs, costs nothing, and can be practiced anywhere,” said Fadel Zeidan, PhD, UC San Diego professor. Zeidan said researchers are looking forward to “continue exploring the neurobiology of mindfulness”, and emphasized that mindfulness can improve the quality of life of those suffering from chronic pain.
They made progress toward deciphering molecular processes that underlie some devastating brain disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.
