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For centuries, mindfulness meditation has been a go-to practice for people looking to manage chronic pain. But there has been a question since long: does meditation genuinely reduce pain, or is it merely functioning as a placebo? A recent study involving brain scans now provides clarity, suggesting that mindfulness meditation activates unique brain mechanisms distinct from those linked to a placebo effect.

Researchers led by Dr Fadel Zeidan, professor of anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego, conducted the study to determine how mindfulness meditation affects pain perception in the brain. Their findings indicate that mindfulness meditation can directly reduce pain without relying on placebo effects.

The study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, involved 115 healthy participants who were randomly divided into four treatment groups. The first group practiced actual mindfulness meditation, focusing on their breath without judgment. The second group engaged in a "sham" meditation practice involving deep breathing, which lacked mindfulness elements. The third group received a placebo cream, with participants trained to believe it would reduce pain, while the fourth group served as a control by listening to an audiobook.

To test the pain responses in each group, researchers applied a painful but harmless heat stimulus to participants' legs and used brain scans to observe their reactions. Results showed that both the placebo cream and sham meditation helped to lower perceived pain to some extent. However, mindfulness meditation significantly outperformed both, leading to a more substantial reduction in pain.

The brain scans revealed that mindfulness meditation decreased the synchronization between certain brain regions associated with introspection, self-awareness, and emotional regulation, which are collectively referred to as the Neural Pain Signature (NPS). This pattern of brain activity is commonly observed among individuals experiencing pain, marking it as a signature response to discomfort. Mindfulness meditation’s effect was to disrupt this NPS network, thereby altering the perception of pain.

Interestingly, neither the placebo cream nor the sham meditation altered the NPS network in the same way. Instead, these treatments activated different brain mechanisms that did not overlap with the pathways engaged during mindfulness meditation. This separation of brain activity supports the idea that mindfulness meditation offers a unique way to manage pain that is not based on placebo responses.

Dr Zeidan explained, “It has long been assumed that the placebo effect overlaps with brain mechanisms triggered by active treatments, such as mindfulness meditation, but these results suggest that when it comes to pain, this may not be the case.”

These findings hold significant implications for pain management, as modern medicine typically evaluates new therapies based on whether they outperform placebos. Although the study only involved healthy individuals, researchers are hopeful that similar outcomes could be seen in people with chronic pain, a next step they are eager to pursue.

“The mind is extremely powerful, and we’re still working to understand how it can be harnessed for pain management by studying the brain,” said Dr. Zeidan in a news release. He emphasized the potential benefits of mindfulness meditation for pain management, pointing out that it is a low-cost, drug-free approach that can be practiced anywhere.

“Millions of people live with chronic pain every day, and there may be more they can do to reduce their pain and improve their quality of life than we previously understood,” Zeidan added. With further research, mindfulness meditation could become a valuable tool in clinical settings, offering a non-pharmaceutical way to address chronic pain.

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