ArticleNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2021
Endogenous theta stimulation during meditation predicts reduced opioid dosing following treatment with Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement.
Article in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 22 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to safely and effectively reduce (taper) use of opioids in chronic non-cancer pain: a systematic review.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Efficacy of interventions to reduce long term opioid treatment for chronic non-cancer pain: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2022Pooled it
- Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement vs Supportive Group Therapy for Co-occurring Opioid Misuse and Chronic Pain in Primary Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA internal medicine · 2022Trial
- Nondual Awareness as a Novel Chronic Pain Relieving Mechanism.Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Treating Chronic Pain by Modulating Phenomenological and Psychophysiological Indices of Self-Transcendence: Single-Blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial Protocol.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Cognitive control as a transdiagnostic mechanism of action in psychedelic effects.Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Changes in biofield measures and experienced states during meditation and breathwork practices: an uncontrolled feasibility study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Oscillating Mindfully: Using Machine Learning to Characterize Systems-Level Electrophysiological Activity During Focused Attention Meditation.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Neural correlates of pain acceptance and the role of the cerebellum: Functional connectivity and anatomical differences in individuals with headaches versus matched controls.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- Neuromodulation and mindfulness as therapeutic treatment in detoxified patients with alcohol use disorder.BMC psychiatry · 2024Article
- Orienting of attention and spatial cognition.Cognitive processing · 2024Review
- The Impact of Nonpharmacological Interventions on Opioid Use for Chronic Noncancer Pain: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Modulating self-referential processing through meditation and psychedelics: is scientific investigation of self-transcendence clinically relevant?World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA) · 2024Article
- The potential of 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine in the treatment of alcohol use disorder: A first look at therapeutic mechanisms of action.Addiction biology · 2024Review
- Changes in Mental Health and EEG Biomarkers of Undergraduates Under Different Patterns of Mindfulness.Brain topography · 2024Article
- Mind-body practices, interoception and pain: a scoping review of behavioral and neural correlates.Annals of medicine · 2023Article
- Mindfulness-induced endogenous theta stimulation occasions self-transcendence and inhibits addictive behavior.Science advances · 2022Article
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Recurrent MDD Patients With Residual Symptoms: Alterations in Resting-State Theta Oscillation Dynamics Associated With Changes in Depression and Rumination.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Veterans experience chronic pain at greater rates than the rest of society and are more likely to receive long-term opioid therapy (LTOT), which, at high doses, is theorized to induce maladaptive neuroplastic changes that attenuate self-regulatory capacity and exacerbate opioid dose escalation. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to modulate frontal midline theta (FMT) and alpha oscillations that are linked with marked alterations in self-referential processing. These adaptive neural oscillatory changes may promote reduced opioid use and remediate the neural dysfunction occasioned by LTOT. In this study, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the effects of a mindfulness-based, cognitive training intervention for opioid misuse, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), on alpha and theta power and FMT coherence during meditation. We then examined whether these neural effects were associated with reduced opioid dosing and changes in self-referential processing. Before and after 8 weeks of MORE or a supportive psychotherapy control, veterans receiving LTOT (N = 62) practiced mindfulness meditation while EEG was recorded. Participants treated with MORE demonstrated significantly increased alpha and theta power (with larger theta power effect sizes) as well as increased FMT coherence relative to those in the control condition-neural changes that were associated with altered self-referential processing. Crucially, MORE significantly reduced opioid dose over time, and this dose reduction was partially statistically mediated by changes in frontal theta power. Study results suggest that mindfulness meditation practice may produce endogenous theta stimulation in the prefrontal cortex, thereby enhancing inhibitory control over opioid dose escalation behaviors.
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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.