Mindfulness is 'promising option' to relieve chronic pain, says new study

Cognitive Behavioral Psychology (CBT) is the most widely used psychological technique for treating chronic pain – affecting one in five adults.

A study published in the online journal Evidence Based Mental Health indicates that mindfulness meditation could be used to "lessen the severity and impact of pain resulting from chronic health problems and the stress badociated with them" .

Researchers who conducted the study, released on Thursday, believe this advance is important as not all people living with the effects of chronic pain find CBT helpful in reducing symptoms.

Mindfulness therapy uses meditation techniques such as awareness, body sensations, and the immediate environment.

The team behind the study researched in research pools relevant clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of CBT and mindfulness-based stress reduction for the treatment of conditions lasting at least three months.

Out of 184 initial clinical trials, 21 out of nearly 2,000 were selected.

The majority of participants were women aged 35 to 65, mainly suffering from musculoskeletal pain.

But in almost four out of ten studies, participants had suffered from acute pain for more than ten years.

The study combined direct and indirect evidence of the potential impact of CBT on health in three factors: compared to usual or non-existent care, vigilance over usual or non-existent care, and full awareness by report to the TCC.

Both techniques showed an improvement in physical functioning and a decrease in the intensity of pain and badociated depression compared to usual care or lack of care.

The researchers cautioned, however, that only one of the 21 trials directly compared CBT with mindfulness – and that only 12 trials were deemed reasonable or of good quality.

The results also showed that it was too early to tell whether CBT or mindfulness were better for people with different types of pain and badociated psychological symptoms.

However, the report pointed out that additional research is needed to fill the gap in results.

The journal concluded, "Although a number of recommendations have been proposed to improve CBT in patients with chronic pain, an additional solution could be to offer patients a reduction of stress based on consciousness, in the extent to which it is promising to improve the severity of pain and reduce the interference of pain and psychological distress. & # 39;

– This article first appeared on Yahoo