Mindfulness Meditation for the Pain of Fibromyalgia 

Research now shows that meditation can help ease the depression associated with and the pain of fibromyalgia, a condition marked by chronic joint and muscle pain, fatigue, and, in some cases, poor memory and thinking. While meditation doesn’t make the pain disappear, it appears to help patients refocus their attention and feel better.

Fibromyalgia is difficult to treat. Doctors normally recommend a combination of exercise and psychosocial interventions, such as learning how to relax. In addition, medications like antidepressants, anti-inflammatories and sleeping pills are often prescribed. The cause of fibromyalgia is unclear, but symptoms often begin after a traumatic experience and worsen during times of stress, said Sandy Sephton, a research psychologist at the University of Louisville. Fibromyalgia effects up to 4 percent of the population of the United States and other industrialized countries.

Now researchers have objective evidence to back up patients’ claims on the benefits of meditation. Sephton and her colleagues found that meditating appears to lower levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress. She presented her findings in May at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in Washington, DC.

Mindfulness meditation 

Sephton and other researchers train patients in a type of meditation called mindfulness meditation. The meditation involves being aware and nonjudgmental of the thoughts that pop into your head while sitting quietly. “We ask people to notice what’s going on in your mind,” said Paul Salmon, a colleague of Sephton’s who trains the study participants in meditation. “Over time, people become more calm and more perceptive of what is happening at the moment,” he said in an interview.

Sephton’s team studied patients’ cortisol levels, which serve as a physical measure of stress. Normally, the hormone increases by 50 to 60 percent when a person wakes up, but then levels off during the day, explained Sephton. Cortisol levels in some fibromyalgia patients follow a different flow, increasing in the afternoon or evening hours.

In her study of 43 people with fibromyalgia, Sephton’s team found that participants’ morning levels of cortisol were lower when they meditated. Participants were asked to meditate at home for 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week, for 8 weeks. Patients who took medications that altered their cortisol levels were excluded from the study.