Mindfulness training and headache education continue to be useful tools for reducing migraine frequency, but only mindfulness training showed the added benefit of improving disability, depression, quality of life, and pain catastrophizing/magnifying pain-related thoughts, according to new research that expands on a study published on December 14, 2020, in JAMA Internal Medicine.1,2

The latest results were presented in October 2021 at the virtual annual meeting of the American Neurological Association and reported by Medscape Medical News.2

Lead investigator Rebecca Erwin Wells, MD, MPH, associate professor of neurology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, presented the new research. She said mindfulness training can result in a shift in perception.

"Recognizing and treating the full impact that migraine has on a person's life is critical, and mindfulness may be an additional tool that may help treat the total burden of migraine," Wells told Medscape Medical News.

"There is a dramatic need for non-opioid treatment options for migraine, especially those that target factors such as stress, since stress is the number one reported trigger for migraine," Wells told Medscape.

The current study included 89 adult patients (mostly female, mean age, 44) who had 4 to 20 migraine days per month. Participants were randomly assigned to receive mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) or headache education.2

The standard MBSR protocol consists of a weekly in-person class that lasts 2 hours, for 8 consecutive weeks. Sessions involve different types of mindfulness meditation, such as "body scans" that focus on different body parts, meditation, and mindful movements such as in hatha yoga.1,2

Participants receiving this intervention were encouraged to practice at home using taped sessions. In this study, they practiced at home an average of 33 minutes per day 4 days per week.1,2

In their original study published last year, Wells et al wrote: "In this randomized clinical trial of 89 adults who experienced between 4 and 20 migraine days per month, standardized training in mindfulness and yoga through MBSR did not improve migraine frequency more than headache education about migraine, as both groups had similar decreases."1

However, they wrote, "MBSR improved disability, quality of life, self-efficacy, pain catastrophizing, and depression out to 36 weeks, with decreased experimentally induced pain suggesting a potential shift in pain appraisal. In conclusion, MBSR may help treat total migraine burden, but a larger, more definitive study is needed to further investigate these results."1

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