Meditation
Indications
Clinical Uses
Mechanism
Hilton proposed that mindfulness meditationworks by “refocusing” the mind on the present situation which increases awareness of the external environment and one’s current sensations, which provides an opportunity for the individual to step back and reframe experiences1.
Chronic Pain
In an SR/M-A by Hilton1, they found only low quality of evidence that mindfulness meditation is associated with an improvement in chronic pain compared with control (no intervention or usual care) for both short- and long-term follow-up1.
It should be noted that this is the conclusion of the authors of the manuscript and the articles in this SR should be inspected individually to verify the author’s conclusions
Depression
In the SR/Ma by Hilton1, meditation demonstrated a statistically significant improvement (decrease) in depression scores compared to usual care, support, education, stress management, and waitlist1.
We have not independently analyzed these articles in the SR and verified the conclusions
Quality of life
Hilton1 found a statistically significant (unsure if this is clinically significant) improvement in quality of life in the mindfulness meditation groups1.
Disability
Hilton1 did not find a statistically significant improvement in disability1.
Drug use
Analgesics
Adverse events
In Hilton’s SR1, only 7/38 of the included RCTs reported adverse events1. 4/7 reported no adverse events1. The RCT by La Cour reported that 2 participants experienced temporary, but strong feelings of anger directed at their painful condition and another 2 participants experienced increased anxiety1. two other studies (Zgierska et al and Cherkin et al.) reported mild side effects from yoga and progressive muscle relaxation1.
Parasympathetic
Mindfulness
Specific interventions
- Core meditation by hyperice2