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When we think of banishing back pain, we typically think of physically addressing the issue. We think of massages and foam rolling. We may even think of invasive surgical procedures and shots. One think we definitely don’t think of is “ohhhmm.” Turns out, meditation and mindfulness practice may in fact be a powerful tool against chronic back pain. These practices help the body achieve “mind over matter” when it comes to dealing with and accepting chronic pain.
A new study has revealed that meditation and yoga can be as effective as cognitive behavior therapy in treating back pain. However, both these techniques could be more effective than over-the-counter pain relievers.
In this study, researchers compared two techniques used with 229 people between the ages of 20 and 70. These individuals all suffer from long-term lower back pain. Half of the group was assigned 8 weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction. This group participated in weekly yoga and meditation sessions. The other half of the group was assigned to cognitive behavior therapy. This kind of therapy educated the individuals about how to think about pain differently. An additional 113 adults were assigned as a control group to continue with their usual treatment of pain using over-the-counter pain relievers.
The results concluded that 47% of people who participated in mindfulness practice found their back pain to be less disabling. A similar percentage, 52%, of individuals who participated in cognitive behavior therapy responded that their pain was less disabling. In contrast, only 35% of people in the control group experienced any sense of improvement at all.
The lead author of the study, Daniel C. Cherkin reported that, “Our results confirm what has already been found for cognitive behavioral therapy, and we went beyond that to show this other mindfulness approach was equally effective for chronic back pain.”
However, what is perhaps more significant is that the number of people who experienced a positive change in their pain continued to rise throughout the year following the mindfulness training. By the one year mark 68% of participants in the mindfulness group reported they had experienced some kind of relief. By the one year mark, the number of participants who experienced relief from the cognitive behavior therapy had also risen, but only to 58%.
Cherkin also explains why he believes mindfulness offers such long lasting benefits. He has said, “The ideal is that you don’t have to think about practice because it’s changed your thinking and how you feel.” He emphasizes that both mindfulness and cognitive behavior therapy don’t treat symptoms; rather, they change the way you perceive symptoms.
He has also added that although cognitive therapy and mindfulness training have plenty of overlap, they differ in one defining characteristic. While cognitive therapy operates primarily around changing your attitude about pain, mindfulness training helps you become more accepting of it.
Regardless, both cognitive behavior therapy and mindfulness-based stress reduction are part of the new wave of pain management, that at least I hope, is here to stay. These therapies help patients cope better and understand their perception of pain, rather than just suppressing the pain with more drugs. By disrupting the cycle of pain perception, patients are better able to live lives less dominated by the pain they experience.
