Effect of Different Meditation Types on Migraine Headache Medication Use
UMass Chan Affiliations
Department of PsychiatryDocument Type
Journal ArticlePublication Date
2015-04-01Keywords
medicationmeditation
migraine
pain
spirituality
Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Behavioral Disciplines and Activities
Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms
Mental and Social Health
Nervous System Diseases
Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms
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Show full item recordAbstract
Spiritual meditation has been found to reduce the frequency of migraines and physiological reactivity to stress. However, little is known about how introducing a spirituality component into a meditation intervention impacts analgesic medication usage. In this study, 92 meditation-naive participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (1) Spiritual Meditation, (n = 25), (2) Internally Focused Secular Meditation (n = 23), (3) Externally Focused Secular Meditation (n = 22), or (4) Progressive Muscle Relaxation (n = 22); and practiced their technique for 20 min/day over 30 days while completing daily diaries. Headache frequency, headache severity, and pain medication use were assessed. Migraine frequency decreased in the Spiritual Meditation group compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Headache severity ratings did not differ across groups (p = ns). After adjusting for headache frequency, migraine medication usage decreased in the Spiritual Meditation group compared to other groups (p < 0.05). Spiritual Meditation was found to not affect pain sensitivity, but it does improve pain tolerance with reduced headache related analgesic medication usage.Source
Behav Med. 2015 Apr 11:1-8. Link to article on publisher's siteDOI
10.1080/08964289.2015.1024601Permanent Link to this Item
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14038/28765PubMed ID
25864906Related Resources
Link to Article in PubMedae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1080/08964289.2015.1024601