By Jonathan Kaupanger
Chronic pain is a really, really complicated thing to
manage. Current treatment for chronic
pain is very limited, so a researcher at Veterans Affairs is doing something to
change this but she wants your help.
Mindfulness Approaches to Reduce Veterans Pain and Enhance
Life or MARVEL is a six-year study that’s starting next year at the VA medical
clinic in Minneapolis, MN. The end
result will be a new way to deliver a non-pharmacological, pain reducing
treatment for veterans.
Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one's
attention to experiences occurring in the present moment. Typically it's developed through the practice
of meditation and other training.
Mindfulness meditation is one form of non-drug approaches to pain that
has been shown to be effective, but there’s just not an easy way to get this to
everyone who needs it.
“Right now some veterans use something called mindfulness
based stress reduction at their VA,” said Dr. Diana Burgess, principal
investigator and Co-Director of Center for Chronic Disease outcomes Research at
the Minneapolis VA. “But it’s really
limited how many people can get into the classes and they are pretty time
intensive so we’re trying to come up with broader ways to deliver these
treatments that have already been shown to be useful for pain.”
Mindfulness works in two stages, first you learn to develop
your concentration skills. One way to do
this is by focusing on something like your breathing. You pay attention to your breathing and when
you get distracted, you move back to focusing on your breathing. “The other thing we’re developing is
mindfulness skills, where we’re starting to notice other aspects of our mind/body
experience,” explains Dr. Burgess. “So
we might notice an aspect of a painful sensation but instead of maybe
tightening and thinking ‘this is terrible, this is going to get works, this is
never going to get better...’”
By practicing mindfulness, Burgess said you can relax and
start focusing on your anchor. Then move
on to other sensations you feel like pulsing, burning and then subsiding. And then noticing that it’s kind of easing
up and the sensations become more fluid.
Next you’ll start noticing the self-talk.
“All of these things
change the relationship that we have with our pain,” said Burgess. “So it should work on a number of
fronts. You’re relaxing which really
helps because stress acerbates pain. But
also it’s trying to change some of the habits that we know can contribute to
pain. There’s the bodily piece to
chronic pain, but there’s the mind part – and it all works together. We know that catastrophizing has negative
effects on pain.”
You don’t need to be part of Dr. Burgess’ study to check out
what mindfulness can do for you. VA has
an app called Mindfulness Coach and you can learn about the benefits of
mindfulness and start practicing with it on your own.
The mind and the body all work together. Pain is a real phenomenon. “Your mind effects your body and your body
effects your mind,” said Dr. Burgess.
“When you have this physical pain, it’s really hard and it effects your
mind. If you’re not sleeping, that is a
real mental thing. But we also know that
just focusing, relaxing, thinking about what you need, all of these things
effect your body. We’re trying to get
away from saying it’s either in the mind or the body and that the mind stuff
isn’t real, but that it’s all connected.”
The MARVEL study begins in March with 45 patients. The full study of 375 men and 375 women will
start soon after that.
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