By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“When it comes to chronic pain, the key is learning to live with it rather than vainly trying to avoid or eradicate it. Mindfulness practice is a wonderful opportunity to do just that. It helps to shift the locus of control from the outside (“this is happening to me and there is nothing I can do about it”) to the inside (“this is happening to me but I can choose how I relate to it”).” – Christiane Wolf
Mindfulness practices have been shown to be effective in promoting physical and psychological health. As a result of mindfulness’ ability to reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress these practices have been found to be helpful in treating a number of medical disorders. In addition, because of mindfulness’ ability to improve emotion regulation and reduce worry and rumination these practices have been found to be helpful in treating a number of psychological disorders. There is such a wide variety of benefits that the application of mindfulness training is being explored for an ever expanding list of conditions.
In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness Interventions in Physical Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review.” See:
or below or view the full text of the study at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834757/
Hardison and colleagues examine the effectiveness of mindfulness training in assisting rehabilitation from a variety of physical disorders. To do this, they reviewed the published research literature on the effects of mindfulness training on recovery from any illness, injury, or disability of the neurological, musculoskeletal, or other body system that could be treated within a medical or rehabilitation setting. A number of different mindfulness practices were employed in the studies including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and General Mindfulness.
They found that, in general the literature reported that mindfulness training was effective in treating musculoskeletal and pain disorders such as chronic musculoskeletal pain, work-related musculoskeletal injury, and knee surgery. These studies reported mixed results regarding mindfulness training effects on reducing the pain accompanying these disorders, but they routinely found that mindfulness produced significant improvements in acceptance of pain and functioning with pain, and reduced distress. They also found that, in general the published research found that mindfulness training was effective in treating recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Mindfulness training improved the patients’ cognitive functioning, physical health, self-efficacy, quality of life, vitality, emotionality and mental health and reduced the distress produced by the TBI symptoms.
These results are potentially very important and suggest that mindfulness training is effective in improving the process of rehabilitation from a number of musculoskeletal and pain disorders and traumatic brain injury. This adds to the already extensive list of applications of mindfulness training to assist in prevention and recovery from medical disorders. It is not known exactly what effects of mindfulness training might be responsible for these benefits. But, it is reasonable to speculate that improvements in stress responses, emotion regulation, and worry and rumination are involved.
So, the published research literature suggests that mindfulness training should be included in the interventions recommended for rehabilitation from physical disorders.
“From the broadest vantage point, mindful clinical practice holds possibilities when used in conjunction with other strategies. It helps patients to take a step back, assess their experiences and move toward compassionate self-care. We owe it to our patients to help them discover their own pockets of rest, relief and comfort.” – Reji Mathew
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Hardison, M. E., & Roll, S. C. (2016). Mindfulness Interventions in Physical Rehabilitation: A Scoping Review. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(3), 7003290030p1–7003290030p9. http://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2016.018069
Abstract
A scoping review was conducted to describe how mindfulness is used in physical rehabilitation, identify implications for occupational therapy practice, and guide future research on clinical mindfulness interventions. A systematic search of four literature databases produced 1,524 original abstracts, of which 16 articles were included. Although only 3 Level I or II studies were identified, the literature included suggests that mindfulness interventions are helpful for patients with musculoskeletal and chronic pain disorders and demonstrate trends toward outcome improvements for patients with neurocognitive and neuromotor disorders. Only 2 studies included an occupational therapist as the primary mindfulness provider, but all mindfulness interventions in the selected studies fit within the occupational therapy scope of practice according to the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process. Higher-level research is needed to evaluate the effects of mindfulness interventions in physical rehabilitation and to determine best practices for the use of mindfulness by occupational therapy practitioners.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4834757/