Study Shows Meditation Provides Real Pain Relief

Recent studies utilizing MRI scans indicate that mindfulness meditation provides authentic pain relief, surpassing any placebo effect. The research demonstrates that the technique genuinely diminishes pain intensity by altering brain activity in a quantifiable manner.

Mindfulness meditation is the practice of observing sensory experiences without judgment or resistance. It has its roots in Hindu and Buddhist traditions and gained popularity in the West during the 1970s, attracting scientific curiosity. Fadel Zeidan, an anesthesiologist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), suggests that mindfulness meditation changes the perception of pain by “separating the pain from the self,” which assists individuals in reframing their experience without the use of medication.

Zeidan, along with UCSD neuroscientist Gabriel Riegner and others, set out to explore whether the effects of mindfulness meditation on pain are more substantial than placebo. They conducted trials with 115 healthy participants, applying a heated probe to each participant’s calf to generate brief waves of controlled pain.

Participants were split into groups: one trained in mindfulness meditation, one given a sham meditation involving only deep breathing, another group received a placebo cream, and a control group listened to an audiobook by 18th-century parson-naturalist Gilbert White, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne.

MRI scans captured data from the trials, measuring distinct “pain signatures” in the brain, such as:

Nociceptive-Specific Pain Signature (NPS): associated with pain intensity,
Negative Affective Pain Signature (NAPS): tied to the emotional aspect of pain,
Stimulus-Independent Pain Signature (SIIPS-1): linked to expectations of pain, indicating placebo-related effects.

Results showed that mindfulness meditation reduced self-reported pain levels and impacted both the NPS and NAPS signatures. However, it did not affect SIIPS-1, which was primarily reduced by the placebo cream. This suggests that mindfulness meditation works through different mechanisms than placebo, directly targeting pain perception rather than relying on expectation.

The findings challenge the belief that active treatments and placebo effects rely on similar brain responses. Zeidan explains that mindfulness meditation and placebo effects seem to activate distinct pathways, which supports using mindfulness as a direct treatment for chronic pain. The team aims to continue researching the neurobiological basis of mindfulness meditation to develop accessible, effective pain management for chronic pain sufferers.

This research is published in Biological Psychiatry.