Abstract
Purpose: Loving-kindness meditation has been used for centuries in the Buddhist tradition to develop love and transform anger into compassion. This pilot study tested an 8-week loving-kindness program for chronic low back pain patients. Method: Patients (N = 43) were randomly assigned to the intervention or standard care. Standardized measures assessed patients’ pain, anger, and psychological distress. Findings: Post and follow-up analyses showed significant improvements in pain and psychological distress in the loving-kindness group, but no changes in the usual care group. Multilevel analyses of daily data showed that more loving-kindness practice on a given day was related to lower pain that day and lower anger the next day. Conclusions: Preliminary results suggest that the loving-kindness program can be beneficial in reducing pain, anger, and psychological distress in patients with persistent low back pain. Implications: Clinicians may find loving-kindness meditation helpful in the treatment of patients with persistent pain.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 287-304 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Journal of Holistic Nursing |
Volume | 23 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2005 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- anger
- chronic low back pain
- meditation
- pain
- psychological distress
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nursing (miscellaneous)