Although psychological approaches to help patients cope with pain have been used previously, what is novel in this study is the combined use of a specific psychological approach
with mindfulness meditation training to help patients wean off high - doses of opioids and reduce their pain - related distress and disability.
In 2011, researchers at Harvard were among the first to demonstrate that just eight weeks
of mindfulness meditation training caused significant increase in the thickness of the hippocampus.
Victorson and his Northwestern team now are partnering with other academic medical institutions to conduct a five - year multi-site controlled trial where men and their spouses will be randomized to eight weeks of
intensive mindfulness meditation training or an eight - week control group.
The proposal, based on published experimental results and a validated computer simulation of neural networks, derives its mechanistic framework from the intimate connection in mindfulness between mind and body, since
standardized mindfulness meditation training begins with a highly localized focus on body and breath sensations.
Creswell's group is now testing the possibility that mindfulness can become more automatic and easy to use with long -
term mindfulness meditation training, which may result in reduced cortisol reactivity.
Some participants went through a brief
mindfulness meditation training program; for 25 minutes for three consecutive days, the individuals were given breathing exercises to help them monitor their breath and pay attention to their present moment experiences.
The participants who received the brief
mindfulness meditation training reported reduced stress perceptions to the speech and math tasks, indicating that the mindfulness meditation fostered psychological stress resilience.
«We think that these brain changes provide a neurobiological marker for improved executive control and stress resilience, such that
mindfulness meditation training improves your brain's ability to help you manage stress, and these changes improve a broad range of stress - related health outcomes, such as your inflammatory health,» Creswell said.
The brain scans showed that
mindfulness meditation training increased the functional connectivity of the participants» resting default mode network in areas important to attention and executive control, namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.
Changes in attention regulation during MBSR may be an important psychological factor that helps to explain
how mindfulness meditation training benefits patients with anxiety disorders.
«
Mindfulness meditation training is a relatively inexpensive and low - stigma treatment approach, and these findings strengthen the case that it can improve resilience to stress,» says lead author Elizabeth A. Hoge, MD, associate professor in Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry.
«
Mindfulness meditation training is a relatively inexpensive and low - stigma treatment approach, and these findings strengthen the case that it can improve resilience to stress,» said lead author Elizabeth A. Hoge, MD, associate professor in Georgetown University Medical Center's Department of Psychiatry.
We think that when people received
the mindfulness meditation training, it really strengthened their ability to be focused and attentive, even at rest,» Lindsay says.
«We've now seen that
mindfulness meditation training can reduce inflammatory biomarkers in several initial studies, and this new work sheds light into what mindfulness training is doing to the brain to produce these inflammatory health benefits,» said David Creswell, lead author and associate professor of psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Additional post-licensure trainings include: The Brazelton Touchpoints Model of Child Development, The Napa Infant - Parent Mental Health Post-Graduate Fellowship, Perry's Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, Ogden's Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Downing's Video Intervention Therapy (VIT), Sandplay Therapy, and
Mindfulness Meditation Training.
A study led by Gaëlle Desbordes at Massachusetts General Hospital indicated that both compassion and
a mindfulness meditation training decreased activity in the amygdala in response to emotional images; this suggests that meditation in general can help improve emotion regulation.
Mindfulness meditation training, however, allows us to take a step back and see the situation from a kind of bird's - eye view.
Zylowska et al. (2007) report that
mindfulness meditation training in 24 adults with ADHD resulted in improvements in self - reported ADHD symptoms and test performance on tasks measuring attention and cognitive inhibition, however, ADHD related scores of the 8 participating adolescents with ADHD are not reported and the study only used a non-controlled pre-post design.