Reducing pain

DALLAS – Dr. He tells of one recent patient, a college student with chronic, unexplained headaches: “He was holding his neck like a 4-by-4.”

With treatment from the mind, “you’re not talking about a pill that you can easily camouflage,” Astin says. “It makes it more challenging to control for placebo effects.” Also, many approaches are often used together, making it difficult to tease out the benefit of any one component.

And Columbia’s Dillard reminds his patients that the other basic components of staying healthy – exercise, sleep and not eating too many meals handed from a window – are paramount for people with pain. “These are basic pillars of health that people need to take care of.”

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EXAMPLES OF MIND-BODY TECHNIQUES

Relaxation techniques: Practices that, broadly defined, seek to reduce muscular tension or elicit the opposite of arousal.

Meditation: The two most extensively researched forms of meditation are transcendental meditation and mindfulness meditation. In transcendental meditation, a person concentrates on a word or phrase as a way of quieting internal mental dialogue. In mindfulness meditation, a person attends to sensations and emotions as they arise.

Guided imagery: Guided imagery involves using mental images as a route to relaxation or a sense of well-being.

Biofeedback: Biofeedback uses devices that help amplify a physical process, such as blood pressure or muscle tension, that normally can’t be detected. An example would be hearing a tone that changes as muscles relax.

SOURCE: Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 2003

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