Objectives

Mindfulness meditation (MM) is an attention and acceptance–based intervention effective for managing chronic pain. Current literature predominately focuses on the behavioral effects of short-term mindfulness-based programs for pain reduction. However, the long-term potential of MM and its effect on pain processing are less well understood. Furthermore, it is possible that short- and long-term effects of MM are underpinned by different neural processes. This systematic review was undertaken to better understand the short- and long-term effects of MM on brain processes related to pain by comparing pain-related neural process in novice and expert MM.

Methods

A literature search was performed to identify relevant studies using MRI/fMRI and EEG/MEG.

Results

A total of 14 studies were selected: 1 MEG and fMRI, 5 EEG, and 8 MRI/fMRI. Overall, findings across studies are consistent in reporting reduced pain ratings in both novice and expert meditators. However, different brain processes appeared to underlie this effect with experts showing greater activity in the somatosensory regions and novices showing reduced activity. The available evidence also indicates a greater dissociation between pain salience and pain unpleasantness in expert meditators along with greater changes in the respective brain regions, suggesting a dissociation between sensory and the cognitive-affective dimensions of pain. For novice meditators, however, the evidence is less conclusive.

Conclusions

Given the ongoing nature of chronic pain, the long-term effects of mindfulness meditation should be explored to assess whether the effects of short-term programs remain post treatment.

中文翻译：

---

专家和新手冥想者中与疼痛相关的神经过程的系统评价

目标

正念冥想（MM）是一种基于注意和接受的干预措施，可有效控制慢性疼痛。当前的文献主要集中在基于短期正念的减轻疼痛方案的行为影响上。但是，人们对MM的长期潜力及其对疼痛处理的影响了解得较少。此外，MM的短期和长期影响可能由不同的神经过程所支撑。通过比较新手和专家MM中与疼痛相关的神经过程，进行了这项系统的综述，以更好地了解MM对与疼痛相关的脑过程的短期和长期影响。

方法

使用MRI / fMRI和EEG / MEG进行文献检索以鉴定相关研究。

结果

总共选择了14项研究：1项MEG和fMRI，5项脑电图和8项MRI / fMRI。总体而言，各项研究的结果一致，表明新手和专业冥想者的疼痛评级均降低。然而，不同的大脑进程似乎是这种作用的基础，专家在体感区域显示出更大的活动，而新手则显示出活动减少。现有证据还表明，专家冥想者的疼痛显着性和疼痛不适感之间存在较大的分离，并且各个大脑区域的变化也更大，这表明疼痛的感觉和认知情感维度之间存在分离。但是，对于新手冥想者而言，证据的结论性较差。

结论

考虑到慢性疼痛的持续性，应探讨正念冥想的长期影响，以评估短期治疗后的影响是否仍然存在。