New study says mindfulness meditation can impact pain relief

In a new study published in the journal, Biological Psychiatry, “Mindfulness meditation and placebo modulate distinct multivariate neural signatures to reduce pain,” researchers suggest that mindfulness meditation is more than just a placebo effect when it comes to pain relief. Using advanced brain imaging techniques, researchers found that mindfulness meditation significantly outperformed other methods in reducing both pain intensity and unpleasantness. Brain scans revealed that mindfulness meditation engaged entirely different pathways than placebo effects.

The study Conclusions follows.

Conclusions

Mindfulness meditation and placebo engage distinct neural pain signatures to reduce pain to demonstrate mechanistic granularity between placebo and mindfulness.