A new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine compared mindfulness-based therapy (MBT) with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for adults living with chronic low back pain and being treated with opioids. The researchers followed 770 patients and found something remarkable: both groups saw improvement in pain, function, and quality of life, and both reduced their opioid dosage at 6 and 12 months.
Let me tell you why I love this.
Because for those of us living with chronic pain, it feels like our options are always limited to medications, surgeries, or just suffering in silence. This study shows something many of us in the chronic illness community already knew: mental health tools like mindfulness and CBT can actually reduce pain. Not just change your mindset about it, but improve your physical symptoms, too.
No, it’s not a cure. But when you live with pain every day, any tool that can reduce that pain even a little is worth knowing about. And when that tool gives you agency in your own healing? That’s powerful.
Mindfulness Is a Self-Led Tool
As one of the study’s lead researchers, Dr. Garland, put it: “Mindfulness is a self-regulated tool that comes from within, unlike surgery or medication where something is being done to you from the outside.” That’s exactly it. These practices help us build inner resources. That matters more than most people understand.
I don’t have back pain, but I live with several chronic pain conditions. And I came to mindfulness and meditation on my own, not because a doctor prescribed it, but because I was desperate for something that would help me survive the day when the medications were not taking away all of the pain. These tools have changed my life.
Why We Need More Research Like This
We need more studies like this, ones that explore tools that aren’t pharmaceutical or profit-driven. I do think that these techniques get overlooked because you can’t bottle and sell them. But you can teach them. And that can save lives.
The truth is, people do die from chronic pain. Sometimes it’s not the illness that kills you—it’s the mental weight of it all. These tools might not solve everything, but if they help someone go on for just one more day? That matters.
So if you live with pain: please know there are tools out there. No one method works for everyone. But mindfulness and CBT are proven to help, and you deserve access to every single thing that could ease your burden.
Wishing you peace and presence today—whatever that looks like for you.
Full disclosure: I work at Penn State, and while I had no involvement in this study, I was thrilled to see that it came from a multi-institutional team that included researchers from Penn State. It’s encouraging when the place you work is contributing to research that genuinely matters, especially research that could offer hope and relief to those of us living with chronic pain.
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