Meditation Awareness Training for Individuals with Fibromyalgia Syndrome: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Participants’ Experiences

Abstract

Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a complex and poorly understood psychosomatic pain disorder. The illness has been the subject of controversy, both in terms of the alleged lack of interest and capability of the medical community to understand and support patients with FMS, and the burden that such individuals place upon economic and healthcare resources. Due to the lack of convincing data for the effectiveness of extant pharmacological and non-pharmacological FMS treatments, a recent direction in FMS research has been the empirical investigation of mindfulness and other meditation-based approaches. The present qualitative study explored whether following participation in a mindfulnessbased intervention, patients with FMS report experiencing changes in (i) how they experience and relate to their illness and (ii) their attitudes towards societal participation, work and unemployment. Ten individuals with FMS were randomly selected from the intervention arm of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the effectiveness of a mindfulnessbased intervention known as Meditation Awareness Training (MAT) for the treatment of FMS. Transcripts of semistructured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a robust and rigorous qualitative methodology for analysing subjective experiences. Five super-ordinate themes emerged from the dataset: (i) reservations about participating, (ii) improvements in psychosomatic well-being, (iii) spiritual growth, (iv) awareness of impermanence and (v) increased sense of citizenship. MAT was experienced as both an acceptable and accessible intervention by individuals with FMS, and participants reported experiencing improvements in psychosocial functioning as well as an increased sense of societal responsibility. MAT appears to have utility for treating FMS and for changing the attitudes of some individuals with FMS towards community engagement and societal contribution.

Meditation-Induced Near-Death Experiences: a 3-Year Longitudinal Study

“…Consequently, the “Results” section that follows makes moderate use of direct excerpts from participant transcripts. For the purposes of validation, the entire analytical process, from reading the raw data through to identifying themes, was repeated in iterative fashion until saturation was achieved (Van Gordon et al 2016a). The analytical process was repeated by a second member of the research team as a form of independent audit.…”

Meditation awareness training for the treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome: A randomized controlled trial

“…There is no reliable laboratory test for FMS, and diagnosis is often based on the exclusion of other pathologies as well as the patient's verbal responses to gentle manual pressure being applied to tender body points (Van Gordon et al ., ). While some patients with FMS appear to respond favourably to pharmacological treatments (principally tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors), many experience limited symptom reduction as well as adverse effects (Häuser et al ., ; Luciano et al ., ; Nüesch, Häuser, Bernardy, Barth, & Jüni, ).…”

“…While some patients with FMS appear to respond favourably to pharmacological treatments (principally tricyclic antidepressants and serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors), many experience limited symptom reduction as well as adverse effects (Häuser et al ., ; Luciano et al ., ; Nüesch, Häuser, Bernardy, Barth, & Jüni, ). Consequently, an integrative treatment approach is currently preferred whereby pharmacological treatments are combined with, for example, aerobic exercise, cognitive behavioural therapy, self‐help, and/or psycho‐education (Van Gordon et al ., ).…”

“…Individuals with FMS typically experience symptoms of widespread musculoskeletal pain, sleep disturbance, poor quality of life, cognitive dysfunction (particularly memory impairment), psychological distress (i.e., depression, anxiety, and stress), and fatigue (Häuser, Wolfe, Tölle, Üçeyler, & Sommer, ; Jones et al ., ; Wolfe, Brähler, Hinz, & Häuser, ). The condition is also associated with (1) high rates of presenting at medical services (Schaefer et al ., ), unemployment (Scott & Jones, ), (2) use of incapacity for work and/or disability benefits (Sicras‐Mainar et al ., ; Wolfe et al ., ), (3) hypochondriasis, self‐preoccupation, and self‐attachment (Canzonieri, Pollak, Oliveira, Costa, & Natour, ; Van Gordon, Shonin, & Griffiths, ; Wolfe, ), and (4) low levels of civic engagement (Van Gordon et al ., ).…”

Ontological Addiction: Classification, Etiology, and Treatment

“…One of the treatment has been shown to slow down autonomic and psychological arousal (Van Gordon, Shonin, & Griffiths, 2015c .…”