Mindfulness and Chronic Headache/Migraine: Mechanisms Explored Through the Fear-Avoidance Model of Chronic Pain
Open accessAbstract
Objectives: To replicate a study by Schutze and colleagues on a headache sample, rather than a heterogenous chronic pain sample, investigating whether level of mindfulness predicts key components in the Fear-Avoidance Model of chronic pain (pain intensity, negative affect, pain catastrophizing, pain-related fear, pain hypervigilance, and functional disability); to investigate the relationships between level of mindfulness and headache/migraine pain intensity, frequency, and duration. Materials and Methods: Participants were 217 individuals who self-reported chronic headache/migraine (51 male, 166 female), aged between 18 and 65 years. Participants completed an online survey measuring demographics, mindfulness, the key components of the Fear-Avoidance Model, and headache pain intensity, duration, and frequency. Results: Mindfulness had significant negative correlations (P<0.05) with all variables except headache pain intensity and headache frequency. Mindfulness significantly predicted negative affect, pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, pain hypervigilance, and headache duration (P<0.05). Mindfulness remained a significant predictor of negative affect and pain hypervigilance after controlling for other key components and background characteristics (P<0.05). Mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between pain intensity and pain catastrophizing (P=0.204). Discussion: Findings suggest that mindfulness may be integrated into the Fear-Avoidance Model of chronic pain for individuals with chronic headache/migraine. Directions for future research are discussed.
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Mindfulness has been shown to be inversely correlated with pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, and pain hypervigilance.
“Similarly, mindfulness has been shown to be inversely correlated with pain catastrophizing, fear of pain, and pain hypervigilance, suggesting that it may interrupt the vicious cycle of pain-related fear and avoidance, which is often followed by substance use 13.”
Studies have demonstrated links between mindfulness and psychological processes involved in pain-related distress, including pain catastrophizing, depression, and anxiety.
“Other studies have demonstrated the links between mindfulness and psychological processes involved in pain-related distress, including pain catastrophizing, 19,20,23 depression, 16,22 and anxiety.11,16”
From Mindful attention is inversely associated with pain via mediation by psychological distress in orthopedic patients. (2024) · cites this paper as [20]
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- Authors
- Komandur, B., Martin, P. R., & Bandarian-Balooch, S.
- Affiliations
- Griffith University (AU)
- Griffith University
- Corresponding author
- Komandur, Biyanka
- ORCID
- Martin, Paul R.
- Venue
- The Clinical Journal of Pain
- Published
- 2018-07
- Volume
- 34
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 638-649
- ISSN
- 0749-8047 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2779530908
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 0.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Locations
- Clinical Journal of Pain (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Griffith Research Online (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Migraine and Headache Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Keywords
- mindfulness, chronic headache, migraine, fear-avoidance model, pain catastrophizing, negative affect, fear of pain, headache duration, headache frequency, pain intensity, functional disability
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Avoidance Learning, Fear, Female, Headache, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Migraine Disorders, Models, Theoretical, Pain Measurement, Young Adult, Catastrophization, Chronic Pain, Mindfulness
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