Meditation may be the way to go for migraine relief, according to a study conducted at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. According to Rebecca Erwin Wells, PhD, lead author of the study, “Stress is known to be a trigger for headaches, and research supports the overall benefit of brain/body interventions for migraine, but there are not many studies that specifically evaluate a prescriptive meditation intervention.” Study Overview The so-called normative meditation and yoga intervention refers to the reduction of stress in migraineurs based on positive thinking (MBSR), and the study aimed to evaluate the safety, feasibility and effectiveness of this intervention. Nineteen adults were randomly assigned to two groups, 10 of whom received the MBSR intervention and 9 of whom received standard medical care. Participants learned MBSR skills for 8 weeks, with additional solo practice at least 5 days per week for 45 minutes per day. Study participants’ disability, self-efficacy, and positive thinking were objectively assessed before and after the trial, and the frequency, severity, and duration of migraine headaches were consistently recorded throughout the trial. We found that MBSR participants had fewer and less severe migraines,” Dr. Wells said. Secondary effects included shorter headache duration, reduced disability, and increased participants’ positive thinking and self-efficacy – the ability of patients to control their migraines. In addition, no adverse events occurred.” Specifically, MBSR participants had a lower incidence of mild migraines per month, but the efficacy did not reach statistical significance. Participants had shorter headache duration than the control group. Based on these findings, the research team concluded that MBSR is a safe and feasible therapy for migraineurs. Although the sample size of the preliminary study was small enough to fail to find statistically significant changes in migraine frequency or severity, secondary outcomes demonstrated that this intervention could have a beneficial effect on headache duration, disability, self-efficacy, and positive thinking. Dr. Wells noted that more in-depth studies with larger sample sizes are planned to further evaluate the effects and mechanisms of this intervention for migraineurs. With approximately 36 million migraineurs in the United States, there is an urgent need for non-pharmacological treatment options, and both physicians and patients should be aware that MBSR is a safe intervention that can reduce pain in migraineurs, according to Dr. Wells.