Mindfulness-Based Pain Management (MBPM) for Patients With Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain

Mindfulness-Based Pain Management (MBPM) is an eight-week behavioral medicine program. Based on the well-known Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, it was specifically developed as an intervention for chronic pain. During the program, mindfulness exercises, gentle body exercises and body awareness and breathing exercises, as well as pain regulation methods are taught. Initial studies suggest efficacy of the program with regard to chronic pain, however, the effect of the standardized program in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain has not yet been investigated in a clinical study. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the MBPM program on pain acceptance in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain. To this end, 40 patients with chronic (specific and non-specific) musculoskeletal pain will be randomly assigned to two study conditions. The intervention group will receive MBPM sessions of 150 minutes once a week over the course of 8 weeks, while the control group will receive standard therapy (waiting list). We hypothesize that patients will indicate a significantly higher pain acceptance after completing the program compared to patients not participating in the program.