• Eric L Garland, Anne K Baker, Paula Larsen, Michael R Riquino, Sarah E Priddy, Elizabeth Thomas, Adam W Hanley, Patricia Galbraith, Nathan Wanner, and Yoshio Nakamura.
• Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development (C-MIIND), University of Utah, 395 South, 1500 East, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA. eric.garland@socwk.utah.edu.
• J Gen Intern Med. 2017 Oct 1; 32 (10): 1106-1113.

BackgroundMedical management of acute pain among hospital inpatients may be enhanced by mind-body interventions.ObjectiveWe hypothesized that a single, scripted session of mindfulness training focused on acceptance of pain or hypnotic suggestion focused on changing pain sensations through imagery would significantly reduce acute pain intensity and unpleasantness compared to a psychoeducation pain coping control. We also hypothesized that mindfulness and suggestion would produce significant improvements in secondary outcomes including relaxation, pleasant body sensations, anxiety, and desire for opioids, compared to the control condition.MethodsThis three-arm, parallel-group randomized controlled trial conducted at a university-based hospital examined the acute effects of 15-min psychosocial interventions (mindfulness, hypnotic suggestion, psychoeducation) on adult inpatients reporting "intolerable pain" or "inadequate pain control." Participants (N = 244) were assigned to one of three intervention conditions: mindfulness (n = 86), suggestion (n = 73), or psychoeducation (n = 85).Key ResultsParticipants in the mind-body interventions reported significantly lower baseline-adjusted pain intensity post-intervention than those assigned to psychoeducation (p < 0.001, percentage pain reduction: mindfulness = 23%, suggestion = 29%, education = 9%), and lower baseline-adjusted pain unpleasantness (p < 0.001). Intervention conditions differed significantly with regard to relaxation (p < 0.001), pleasurable body sensations (p = 0.001), and desire for opioids (p = 0.015), but all three interventions were associated with a significant reduction in anxiety (p < 0.001).ConclusionsBrief, single-session mind-body interventions delivered by hospital social workers led to clinically significant improvements in pain and related outcomes, suggesting that such interventions may be useful adjuncts to medical pain management.Trial RegistrationTrial Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov ; registration ID number: NCT02590029 URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02590029.

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