Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
In a study from the University of Utah, scientists found that a mindfulness meditation practice can produce a healthy altered state of consciousness in the treatment of individuals with addictive behaviors.
The findings come from the largest neuroscience study to date on mindfulness as a treatment for addiction.
The study builds on previous research measuring the positive effects of theta waves in the human brain.
Researchers have found that individuals with low theta waves tend to experience a wandering mind, trouble concentrating or they ruminate on thoughts about themselves.
Low theta waves result in a loss of self-control as the brain slips into its default mode of automatic habits.
In contrast, when a person is focused, present, and fully absorbed in a task, EEG scans will show increased frontal midline theta wave activity.
The new study showed it is in this mindful, theta wave state that people begin to experience feelings of self-transcendence and bliss, and the brain changes in ways that actually reduce one’s addictive behaviors.
The team recruited 165 adults with long-term opioid use for the study.
Participants were placed into either the control group that participated in supportive group psychotherapy or the experimental group taught to incorporate Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) into their daily lives.
Before and after the eight weeks of study treatment, all participants were brought into the research lab and had their brain waves measured with EEG while they were asked to try to practice mindfulness meditation.
Participants were assessed for opioid misuse for nine months after the treatment ended.
The team found medication could reduce opioid misuse by 45%, more than doubling the effect of standard therapy.
Study participants in the meditation group learned to practice mindfulness meditation by focusing their attention on their breath or body sensations for sustained periods of time and refocusing their attention when their minds began to wander into obsessive thinking about drugs or life stressors.
Participants showed more than twice as much frontal midline theta brain activity following treatment with meditation, whereas those in supportive therapy showed no increase in theta.
Participants in the meditation group who showed the biggest increases in theta waves reported more intense experiences of self-transcendence during meditation, including the sense of one’s ego fading away, a sense of oneness with the universe, or feelings of blissful energy and love.
Meditation also led to significant decreases in opioid misuse through the nine-month follow-up.
The team says mindfulness can create a pathway for us to transcend our limited sense of self.
Civilizations have known for thousands of years that self-transcendence, the experience of being connected to something greater than ourselves, has powerful therapeutic benefits.
If you care about pain, please read studies about why people with red hair respond differently to pain than others, and half of Americans with opioid use disorder don’t get this lifesaving medication.
For more information about pain, please see recent studies about how to deal with chronic pain, and results showing Medical cannabis may help reduce arthritis pain, and back pain.
The study was conducted by Eric Garland et al and published in Science Advances.
Copyright © 2022 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
