Investigating Mindfulness and Clinical hypnosis for Pain-Related Conditions Using Heart Rate Variability as a Marker of Vagal Heart Rate Modulation: Report of Three Randomized Trials

Chronic and post-surgical pain conditions are highly prevalent and often treated sub-optimally. Clinical pain is understood to originate from inflammatory and neurological dysfunction, and research literature has amassed to shed light on stress-related sympathetic nervous system hyper-activity as a critical component of the etiology and maintenance of pain. Conversely, the role of the parasympathetic vagus nerve has been less studied, and appears to hold promise as a therapeutic pathway that can be leveraged through administration of behavioral medicine treatments. The present dissertation employed heart rate variability as a measure of vagal heart rate modulation in three randomized, controlled trials to investigate responses to mindfulness meditation and clinical hypnosis, in individuals with chronic and post-surgical pain. The overall pattern of results indicate that both mindfulness and hypnosis-based treatments have beneficial effects on vagal heart rate modulation in individuals with chronic and post-surgical pain, respectively. Future research is needed to determine the extent to which these effects may translate to clinical pain outcomes.