Abstract
Objectives
Previous studies have shown that brief mindfulness trainings can have significant analgesic effects. However, the effects of the various components of mindfulness on pain analgesia are not well understood. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of two components of mindfulness interventions—attention and acceptance—on pain analgesia.
Methods
One hundred and nineteen healthy college students without prior mindfulness experience underwent a cold-pressor test to measure pain tolerance before and after the training. Pain intensity, tolerance, distress, threshold, and endurance time were also tested. The participants were randomly assigned to one of the following four conditions: (1) acceptance of pain, (2) attention to pain, (3) acceptance of and attention to pain, or (4) control.
Results
The results showed that both the acceptance strategy and the combined acceptance and attention group increased pain endurance and tolerance after training. Furthermore, the acceptance group had longer pain endurance and tolerance times than the attention and control groups.
Conclusions
These results suggest that acceptance of pain is more important than attention to pain. Study limitations and future research directions are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Johann D’Souza for the proof-reading work.
Funding Sources
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (Project 31271114). Dr. Hofmann receives financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (as part of the Humboldt Prize), NIH/NCCIH (R01AT007257), NIH/NIMH (R01MH099021, U01MH108168), and the James S. McDonnell Foundation 21st Century Science Initiative in Understanding Human Cognition – Special Initiative. He receives compensation for his work as an advisor from the Palo Alto Health Sciences and for his work as a Subject Matter Expert from John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and SilverCloud Health, Inc. He also receives royalties and payments for his editorial work from various publishers.
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WY and LX conceived and designed the study, executed the study, analyzed the data, and wrote the paper. QZ collaborated with the collection of the data. SH, SM, and XW collaborated in the writing and editing of the final manuscript. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript for submission.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Ethics Statement
The study received ethical approval from the Academic Committee of College of Psychology, Capital Normal University. No adverse events were reported in this study.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants.
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Wang, Y., Qi, Z., Hofmann, S.G. et al. Effect of Acceptance Versus Attention on Pain Tolerance: Dissecting Two Components of Mindfulness. Mindfulness 10, 1352–1359 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-1091-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-019-1091-8
Keywords
- Mindfulness
- Acceptance
- Attention
- Pain
- Mechanism
- Short-term