Mindfulness reduced laboratory heat pain more than slow breathing
Pooled trials favored mindfulness for laboratory heat pain. Breathing partly accounted for each meditation approach’s relief versus book listening; this analysis did not demonstrate mediation by anxiety.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
Mindfulness reduced heat-pain ratings more than slow-breathing sham meditation or book listening. Slower breathing partially accounted for each meditation condition’s pain relief relative to book listening. Both meditation approaches lowered anxiety, but this analysis did not demonstrate that anxiety changes mediated pain relief. These findings in healthy volunteers cannot establish benefits for ongoing pain conditions.
This abstract-based account is limited by inconsistent overall and group sample counts, missing pain-effect magnitude and confidence interval, and testing in healthy volunteers with experimentally induced pain.
What researchers found
Heat-pain intensity ratings
Compared with slow-breathing sham meditation and book listening, using ratings before and after intervention. Exact timing and the size of the difference were not reported.
Testing possible explanations
The researchers examined pain ratings alongside breathing rate and anxiety. Their mediation analysis asked whether changes in breathing or anxiety statistically accounted for part of the difference in pain relief between groups.
What mediation means
Breathing statistically accounted for part of each meditation approach’s benefit over book listening. This does not show why mindfulness outperformed sham meditation or establish a complete biological explanation for pain relief.
The original publication
Mindfulness meditation reduces pain more effectively than slow-breathing meditation: the mediating role of respiration.
Amorim AB, Gianola M, Barrows D et al.
Pain · 2026
- PubMed ID
- 41114675
- Record checked
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