Mindfulness meditation in older adults with postherpetic neuralgia: A randomized controlled pilot study

Abstract

This parallel-group, randomized controlled pilot study examined daily meditation in a diverse sample of older adults with postherpetic neuralgia. Block randomization was used to allocate participants to a treatment group (n = 13) or control group (n = 14). In addition to usual care, the treatment group practiced daily meditation for six weeks. All participants completed questionnaires at enrollment in the study, two weeks later, and six weeks after that, at the study’s end. Participants recorded daily pain and fatigue levels in a diary, and treatment participants also noted meditation practice. Results at the .10 level indicated improvement in neuropathic, affective, and total pain scores for the treatment group, whereas affective pain worsened for the control group. Participants were able to adhere to the daily diary and meditation requirements in this feasibility pilot study.

Mindfulness Meditation for Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review

“…Five (Brown and Jones, 2013;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015) of the 13 studies reporting mental health-related quality of life reported a significant effect, and this effect is significant in the pooled analysis (SMD 0.44; CI 0.18, 0.69; 13 RCTs; I 2 50.6%) (Brown and Jones, 2013;Gaylord et al, 2011;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone, Greco and Weiner, 2008;Plews-Ogan et al, 2005;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;Teixeira, 2010;Wells et al, 2014). 1 Twelve studies measured physical health-related quality of life (Brown and Jones, 2013;Gaylord et al, 2011;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;Teixeira, 2010;Wells et al, 2014), and four of these studies used a remote intervention (Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Teixeira, 2010). 2 Three (Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015) of the 12 and all of those using a remote intervention report a significant positive effect of meditation on physical health-related quality of life.…”

“…Ten studies were judged to be of fair quality, primarily due to being unclear in some aspects of the methods (Cash et al, 2015;Davis and Zautra, 2013;Day et al, 2014;Dowd et al, 2015;Gaylord et al, 2011;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Wells et al, 2014). Eleven studies were judged to be poor; eight of these were primarily due to issues with completeness of reporting outcome data, such as inadequate or missing ITT analysis or less than 80-percent follow-up Brown and Jones, 2013;Cathcart et al, 2014;Esmer et al, 2010;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone et al, 2009;Omidi and Zargar, 2014;PlewsOgan et al, 2005). Three studies were judged poor primarily due to unclear methods (Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;Teixeira, 2010;Wong, 2009).…”

“…Pain scales and comparators varied from study to study (Astin et al, 2000;Brown and Jones, 2013;Cash et al, 2015;Cathcart et al, 2014;Davis and Zautra, 2013;Day et al, 2014;Dowd et al, 2015;Esmer et al, 2010;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Morone et al, 2009;Omidi and Zargar, 2014;Plews-Ogan et al, 2005;Teixeira, 2010;Wells et al, 2014;Zautra et al, 2008;Parra-Delgado and Latorre-Postigo, 2013;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;Gaylord et al, 2011;Ljotsson, Falk, et al, 2010). The median follow-up time was 12 weeks, with a range of four to 60 weeks.…”

“…A meta-regression found that treatment effects did not differ significantly when TAU was used as a comparator versus all other comparators. Among the eight RCTs that compared mindfulness meditation to a passive control (either intervention or a waitlist for the primary intervention) (Cash et al, 2015;Cathcart et al, 2014;Day et al, 2014;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015), one showed a significant effect of meditation on pain (Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015). The pooled effect (displayed in Figure 3.6) was not significant (SMD 0.28; CI −0.46, 1.02; 8 RCTs; I 2 76.5%); considerable heterogeneity was detected.…”

“…Fifteen RCTs examined the effect of MBSR on a continuous chronic pain measure Cash et al, 2015;Esmer et al, 2010;la Cour and Petersen, 2015;Meize-Grochowski et al, 2015;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Morone et al, 2009;Omidi and Zargar, 2014;Plews-Ogan et al, 2005;Teixeira, 2010;Wells et al, 2014;Zautra et al, 2008;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;) (see Figure 3.8). Eleven of these studies (Cash et al, 2015;Esmer et al, 2010;Morone, Greco, and Weiner, 2008;Omidi and Zargar, 2014;Plews-Ogan et al, 2005;Teixeira, 2010;Wells et al, 2014;Zautra et al, 2008;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015; reported a positive effect after treatment was applied for up to 12 weeks, three of which were statistically significant (Omidi and Zargar, 2014;Rahmani and Talepasand, 2015;Wells et al, 2014).…”