For people living with chronic back pain, the options they had been given until now largely stayed around painkillers and physical therapy. Researchers at Boston Medical Center (BMC) in the United States reported clinical results showing that a mindfulness meditation program delivered beyond the screen helped ease patients’ pain and disruptions in daily life. The randomized clinical trial involving 451 adults was published in the June 29 issue of the international academic journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
Rather than getting rid of pain, changing how people respond to it
The program designed by the research team is called OPTIMUM. It reflects the goal of optimizing pain treatment with mindfulness in clinical settings. According to the BMC announcement, it is a form of the widely known Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course adapted for pain management. Participants took part remotely in group sessions lasting 120 minutes each week for eight weeks. Each session was led by a trained meditation instructor together with a primary care physician, and was accompanied by gentle stretching as well as breathing and awareness exercises. The core was not to forcibly erase pain itself, but to help participants change the way they respond to the sensation of pain.
451 people randomized; significant improvements in pain and daily-life indicators after 6 months
The clinical trial enrolled 451 participants from three sites and split them into a meditation program group of 224 and a usual care group of 227. The average age of participants was 52.1, and women made up 70.5%. The primary evaluation at the six-month mark used the PEG scale (0 to 10), which looks at pain, enjoyment of life, and daily activities together. The meditation group improved by an average of 1.21 points, a larger change than the 0.59-point decrease in the usual care group, and the difference between the two groups was statistically meaningful at 0.62 (P=.002). However, the paper said the improvement did not reach the “minimum clinically meaningful difference (1 point)” set in advance by the researchers. The improvement continued through the 12-month follow-up.
Billable group meditation visits that lower the threshold for treatment
What drew attention in this study was the delivery method more than the size of the effect. It was conducted via remote video, and because doctors directly participated in sessions and the visits were recognized as formal group care, the program was designed to allow insurance billing within the existing medical reimbursement schedule. For patients who find it difficult to travel or who do not have a nearby pain clinic, it meant they could take part from home—lowering the barrier for those who had often been left out of mindfulness programs. Natalia Morone, the doctor who led the research, said, “Our program gives people practical skills they can use repeatedly—so they can respond to pain differently.” Amid ongoing concerns in the medical field about expanding pain-management approaches that do not rely on medications, the results show a trend in which meditation is broadening its role as one branch of hospital care.
