Abstract Details

Implementing cost-effective alternatives to opioids for chronic pain is a promising means of reducing the burden of excessive opioid use on patients and the US healthcare system. While meditation has been used in the management of chronic pain, few studies have explored its utility in patients with chronic pain associated with neurological impairment. Patients in an IRF with neurological impairment provide an ideal population to study the benefits of meditation on chronic pain.

This is a pilot study to determine the feasibility of using smartphone-based daily meditation to improve pain in patients with neurological impairments admitted to an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF).

Patients with spinal cord injury, stroke, or polyneuropathy were enrolled upon entering the IRF at Vidant Medical Center. The meditation app Insight Timer was used to deliver daily 10-minute meditations to enrolled participants. Participants were matched to control subjects by age, sex, race, length of stay, and impairment code. Self-reported daily pain scores (0-10) taken once or twice daily were averaged for each patient. Patients’ perceptions of meditation as a means of pain management was recorded in pre- and post-intervention surveys. Average pain scores +/- standard deviation are reported.

20 rehab patients were enrolled and reported average pain scores of 2.54 +/- 1.92 (range, 0.33 to 8.23) compared to average pain score 3.26 +/- 2.35 (range, 0.1 to 6.02) for matched control patients who did not receive the intervention. Survey data showed participants were “very” likely to continue using the app (4.2/5), and “completely” enjoyed the daily meditations (4.8/5). We will perform additional statistical analyses on our sample and also look at the effect of our intervention on PRN opioid use.

Brief daily meditations delivered via a smartphone application offers an inexpensive, well-received, and easily reproducible means of managing pain in patients with neurological impairments in an IRF.