Trial reportPsychosomatic medicine
Enhancement of Meditation Analgesia by Opioid Antagonist in Experienced Meditators.
Trial report in Psychosomatic medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04034004 (The Role of Endogenous Opioids in Mindfulness-based Chronic Pain Relief), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Role of Endogenous Opioids in Mindfulness-based Chronic Pain Relief
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mechanism of Action of Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Pain Relief-A Systematic Review.Journal of integrative and complementary medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Pain, mindfulness, and placebo: a systematic review.Frontiers in integrative neuroscience · 2024Pooled it
- Mindfulness Meditation and Placebo Modulate Distinct Multivariate Neural Signatures to Reduce Pain.Biological psychiatry · 2025Trial
- The role of endogenous opioids in mindfulness and sham mindfulness-meditation for the direct alleviation of evoked chronic low back pain: a randomized clinical trial.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Trial
- The Role of Heart Rate Variability in Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief.The journal of painTrial
- The Role of Expectations and Endogenous Opioids in Mindfulness-Based Relief of Experimentally Induced Acute Pain.Psychosomatic medicineTrial
- A Brief Mindfulness Intervention for Pain Management in Fibromyalgia: A Single-arm Open-Label Study.Restorative neurology and neuroscience · 2026Article
- Self-regulated analgesia in males but not females is mediated by endogenous opioids.PNAS nexus · 2024Article
- The psychophysiology of music-based interventions and the experience of pain.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- Meditation as an Adjunct to the Management of Acute Pain.Current pain and headache reports · 2023Review
- Reduced Pain by Mind-Body Intervention Correlates with Improvement of Shoulder Function in People with Shoulder Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2022Article
- Neurophysiological Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness Meditation-Based Pain Relief: an Updated Review.Current pain and headache reports · 2020Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveStudies have consistently shown that long-term meditation practice is associated with reduced pain, but the neural mechanisms by which long-term meditation practice reduces pain remain unclear. This study tested endogenous opioid involvement in meditation analgesia associated with long-term meditation practice.
methodsElectrical pain was induced with randomized, double-blind, cross-over administration of the opioid antagonist naloxone (0.15-mg/kg bolus dose, then 0.2-mg/kg per hour infusion dose) with 32 healthy, experienced meditation practitioners and a standardized open monitoring meditation.
resultsUnder saline, pain ratings were significantly lower during meditation (pain intensity: 6.41 ± 1.32; pain unpleasantness: 3.98 ± 2.17) than at baseline (pain intensity: 6.86 ±1.04, t(31) = 2.476, p = .019, Cohen's d = 0.46; pain unpleasantness: 4.96 ±1.75, t(31) = 3.746, p = .001, Cohen's d = 0.68), confirming the presence of meditation analgesia. Comparing saline and naloxone revealed significantly lower pain intensity (t(31) = 3.12, p = .004, d = 0.56), and pain unpleasantness (t(31) = 3.47, p = .002, d = 0.62), during meditation under naloxone (pain intensity: 5.53 ± 1.54; pain unpleasantness: 2.95 ± 1.88) than under saline (pain intensity: 6.41 ± 1.32; pain unpleasantness: 3.98 ± 2.17). Naloxone not only failed to eliminate meditation analgesia but also made meditation analgesia stronger.
conclusionsLong-term meditation practice does not rely on endogenous opioids to reduce pain. Naloxone's blockade of opioid receptors enhanced meditation analgesia; pain ratings during meditation were significantly lower under naloxone than under saline. Possible biological mechanisms by which naloxone-induced opioid receptor blockade enhances meditation analgesia are discussed.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.