Mind-body therapies for pain may lower abuse of opioid painkillers
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Suffering with serious pain is a horrible state of being and can lead to overuse of pain medications. New research shows that troublesome pain responds well to mind-body therapies.
The University of Utah reports that unmanageable pain is decreased with mind-body therapies. Researchers observed that there was a significant decrease in acute pain in hospital patients with mindfulness training and hypnotic suggestion.
In the aftermath of just a single 15-minute session of mindfulness training or hypnotic suggestion patients reported an immediate lessening of pain. This pain relief was similar to what you might experience with an opioid painkiller.
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The 244 participants in this study were suffering from unmanageable pain due to illness, disease or surgical procedures. The patients received mindfulness, hypnotic suggestion or pain coping education. There was a decrease in anxiety and increase in feelings of relaxation with all three types of intervention.
There was a 29 percent decrease in pain in patients who took part in hypnotic suggestion intervention. In patients who took part in mindfulness intervention there was a 23 percent decrease in pain. And there was a 9 percent decrease in pain this who took part in pain coping education. In patients who had two mind-body therapies there was a significant decrease in the perceived of need for opioids.
Eric Garland, the lead author of the study and director of the University of Utah”s Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development, has shown in previous research that mindfulness training programs can be a good way to lower chronic pain symptoms and lower misuse of prescription opioids. This new study shows the promise of brief mind-body therapies for people who are suffering from acute pain.
This study has been published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The researchers have shown that management of acute pain in hospital patients can be improved with mind-body interventions. The implications of this study are significant for management of pain, particularly in view of serious problems with abuse of opioids.
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