A Brief Mindfulness Intervention for Medically Hospitalized Patients with Acute Pain: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective. Mindfulness interventions may be beneficial for patients with chronic pain; however, the effects for acute pain are not understood. The purpose of this study was to pilot test a brief mindfulness intervention for acute pain and stress for patients in an inpatient medical setting. Design. Pilot randomized clinical trial. Setting. An inpatient Acute Care Surgery service at an urban hospital. Subjects. Sixty patients with acute pain were randomly selected and agreed to participate. Methods. Interested patients consented to the study and were randomized to the 10-minute intervention (i.e., mindfulness strategy) or comparison group (i.e., education on the Gate Control Theory of Pain). Participants completed pre- and post-assessment measures on pain severity and stress. Results. Preliminary results showed that within the intervention and comparison groups, participants experienced decreases in pain from pre- to post-intervention (P = 0.002 and 0.005, respectively). Within the intervention group, there was a significant decrease in stress from pre- to post-intervention (P = 0.001). There were no significant changes for stress within the comparison group (P = 0.32). There were no significant differences between the intervention and comparison groups for pain (P = 0.44) or stress (P = 0.07) at post-intervention, although Cohen's d effect sizes were small to medium for pain and stress, respectively. Conclusions. A brief mindfulness intervention for medically hospitalized patients with acute pain may decrease pain and stress. Future research should examine this intervention with a fully powered, larger sample to examine efficacy.