Mindfulness Training at University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Healthy Minds Reveals Changes in Pain-Related Brain Activity and Offers New Avenues for Precise Pain Treatment
Mindfulness Training at University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Healthy Minds Reveals Changes in Pain-Related Brain Activity and Offers New Avenues for Precise Pain Treatment
Changes in brain activity after mindfulness training identified
A study by the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has isolated changes in pain-related brain activity after mindfulness training. These findings show the way to more targeted and precise pain treatments.
The study published on July 27th in the American Journal of Psychiatry identified specific brain paths for pain regulation, the activity of which is changed by the eight -week course for stress reduction by mindfulness of the center.
These changes could not be observed among participants who visited a similar course without mindfulness instructions. According to Joseph Wielgosz, who headed the study, these are important new findings that show that the changes in the brain are actually due to mindfulness training. Wielgosz was a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the study and is now a postdoctoral at Stanford University. The study is the first to demonstrate pain -related changes in the brain by a standardized mindfulness course that is widespread in clinical facilities.
About a third of the Americans suffer from pain -related problems. However, common treatment methods such as medication and invasive procedures do not help with everyone and, according to Wielgosz, contribute to an epidemic of addiction problems in connection with prescription and illegal drugs.
mindfulness training courses such as the MBSR course are popular in patients and show promising clinical results. Through the practical use of non -evaluating, current mindfulness for mind and body, participants can learn to react to pain with less emotional stress and to develop greater psychological flexibility. This can ultimately lead to a reduction in pain.
In order to measure the neural pain reaction, the brains of the study participants were scanned while they were carefully controlled, heat -based stimulus on their forearm. The researchers recorded two pain -related activity patterns throughout the brain, which was developed by Tor Wager, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth College. This innovative technology improves the ability to recognize pain -related signals in complex brain activity. Changes in the signatures can also be interpreted more easily in psychological terms.
The participants of the MBSR course showed a reduction in a signature that is associated with the sensory intensity of the pain.
"Our results support the idea that mindfulness training for new practitioners directly affects how sensory signals from the body are converted into a brain reaction," says Wielgosz, whose work was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
The study also examined long -term mindfulness training. Interestingly, changes in brain activity were found in intensive meditation retreats, which indirectly form the influences on pain. This includes, for example, differences in attention, beliefs and expectations-factors that often lead to increased levels of distress in non-meditators.
"Similar to an experienced athlete sport plays differently than a beginner, experienced mindfulness practitioners seem to use their intellectual 'muscles' differently in response to pain," explains Wielgosz.
These results show the potential of mindfulness practices as behavior in everyday life. The study is also significant for pain research, since in addition to the subjective reviews of the participants, it also uses brain -based dimensions for pain in a randomized study. Pain researchers have long been looking for ways to biologically measure the treatment effect.
"If we look at both the neuronal activity and the experience of the patient, we get insights into mindfulness that we would never have gained through isolated view," says Wielgosz.
The researchers therefore believe that their study not only provides knowledge about mindfulness, but can also represent a model for future research in order to disrentry the complexity of pain and ultimately to reduce the burden they cause in our lives.