Living Lab Radio

A new meta-analysis of dozens of studies finds evidence that mind-body therapies, like meditation, can reduce not only pain, but also opioid use. “There have been other reviews of studies of mind body therapies for people experiencing various types of pain,” said Eric Garland, lead author of the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association and director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development at the University of Utah. “By and large, those reviews have showed that my body therapies are effective for reducing pain.” But Garland and his colleagues were interested in another question, and that is whether mind-body therapies could not only reduce pain but also reduce opioid use and misuse. “We did not know whether these therapies could help people who were also prescribed opioids,” Garland explained. “Given the opioid crisis in this country, that question seemed really important.” A search of published research turned up more than 4,000