Participants in an eight-week stress reduction yoga and meditation course reported significant improvement in levels of pain, depression and disability, as demonstrated by a study in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. The majority of the research respondents (89%) reported that the program helped them find ways to better cope with their pain while 11% remained neutral.
Chronic pain is a serious and common medical condition affecting an estimated 100 million people in the United States, which correlates with annual expenses of about $635 billion. The small study was conducted at a semi-rural population in Oregon where problems of affordability, addiction and access to care are common. Participants received intensive instruction in mindfulness meditation and mindful hatha yoga through an eight-week period.
“Many people have lost hope because, in most cases, chronic pain will never fully resolve,” says Cynthia Marske, DO, an osteopathic physician and director of graduate medical education at the Community Health Clinics of Benton and Linn County. “However, mindful yoga and meditation can help improve the structure and function of the body, which supports the process of healing.”
Curing and healing are inherently different, explains Dr. Marske.
“Curing means eliminating disease, while healing refers to becoming more whole,” Dr. Marske says. “With chronic pain, healing involves learning to live with a level of pain this is manageable. For this, yoga and meditation can be very beneficial.”
The analysis found mindful meditation and yoga resulted in significant improvements in patients’ perceptions of pain, depression and impairment. After the program, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scores, a typical measure of melancholy, fell by 3.7 points on a 27-point scale. According to Dr. Marske, some patients experience a similar drop from using an antidepressant.
“Chronic pain often goes hand-in-hand with depression,” says Dr. Marske. “Mindfulness-based meditation and yoga can help restore both a patient’s mental and physical health and can be effective alone or in combination with other treatments such as therapy and medication.”
Study participants received instruction in MBSR, a systematic instructional program based on training people to have an awareness of the self in the present moment and also a nonjudgmental way. The findings bolster other evidence that MBSR may be useful adjunctive treatment for chronic pain whilst enhancing perceived depression.
“The bottom line is that patients are seeking new ways to cope with chronic pain and effective non-pharmaceutical treatments are available,” says Dr. Marske. “Our findings show meditation and yoga can be a viable option for people seeking relief from chronic pain.”
Related Journal Article: https://jaoa.org/article.aspx?articleid=2765229