• Keren Reiner, Michal Granot, Eliran Soffer, and Joshua Dan Lipsitz.
• *Department of Psychology, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel erinerno@bgu.ac.il.
• Pain Med. 2016 Apr 1; 17 (4): 628-35.

ObjectiveResearch shows that mindfulness meditation (MM) affects pain perception; however, studies have yet to measure patterns of change over time. We examined effects of MM on perception of experimental heat pain using multiple psychophysical indices, including pattern of change in response to tonic painful stimuli. We also tested the potential moderating role of baseline mindfulness.MethodForty participants were randomly assigned to a brief MM training or control group. We assessed: a) heat pain threshold (HPT), b) temperature which induces pain at a fixed, target intensity level, and c) response pattern over time to tonic heat pain.ResultsCompared to control group, the MM group showed increased HPT and more rapid attenuation of pain intensity for tonic pain stimuli. Moderation analyses indicated that baseline mindfulness moderated effects of MM on HPT.ConclusionsA brief MM intervention appears to affect perception of experimental pain both by increasing pain threshold and accelerating modulation of response. Findings may help elucidate mechanisms of MM for chronic pain.© 2015 American Academy of Pain Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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