Mechanisms of Mindfulness Meditation and Self-Hypnosis for Pain in Older Adults With Chronic Pain (NCT06957743) | Clinical Trial Compass
RecruitingNot Applicable
Mechanisms of Mindfulness Meditation and Self-Hypnosis for Pain in Older Adults With Chronic Pain
United States375 participantsStarted 2026-02-10
Plain-language summary
The goal of this study is to better understand how two common psychological treatments for pain work in the brain of older adults living with chronic pain. This study will:
1. evaluate fMRI of adults receiving psychological treatments for chronic pain to determine how these interventions work within older adults, and
2. examine self-report and EEG variables to identify for whom do these psychological interventions work.
Adults ages 60 years and older, living with chronic pain for at least 3 months will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions:
1. Mindfulness-Meditation
2. Therapeutic Hypnosis
3. Story Listening
Who can participate
Age range60 Years
SexALL
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Inclusion criteria
✓. be ≥60 years of age;
✓. have self-reported chronic pain (≥3-months, with pain experienced on ≥ 50% of days);
✓. endorse an average intensity of pain ≥3 on a 0-10 numerical rating scale (NRS) for most days of the previous 3-months;
✓. be able to read, speak, and understand English;
✓. be naïve to meditation and hypnosis:
✓. if currently taking analgesic or psychotropic medication, medication must have been stabilized for ≥4-weeks prior to this study and does not anticipate changes in the medication during the study;
✓. access to a private place with adequate internet reception to support participation in intervention training sessions;
✓. not currently participating in another clinical trial or interventional study for chronic pain and willing to refrain from participation in any other clinical trial or interventional study for chronic pain during active participation in this study;
Exclusion criteria
What they're measuring
1
Change in average chronic pain intensity in past 24 hours
Timeframe: Collected daily for 4 consecutive days at pre-baseline, during EEG procedure, baseline MRI/fMRI assessment, at each of the 4 treatment sessions, 1-week post-baseline MRI, and daily for 4 consecutive days starting day 11 post-baseline MRI/fMRI assessment
. have a history of a medical condition that could produce an abnormal EEG (e.g., epilepsy, history of traumatic brain injury);
✕. have an EEG confounder (e.g., congenital or acquired skull defects, missing sections or holes in the skull, or plates, screws, or other implants within the skull or brain) that would interfere with reliable EEG data collection;
✕. have metals in the body (e.g., pacemakers and/or cochlear implant) that are not allowed by IBIC MRI technicians;
✕. self-report claustrophobia or other contraindications to MRI scanning;
✕. have uncontrolled hypertension;
✕. have a primary chronic pain condition of headache;
✕. have chronic pain due to malignancy (e.g., cancer) or a chronic pain condition for which surgery is recommended and/or planned;
✕. alcohol abuse (operationalized as scoring ≥5 (male) or ≥4 (female) and responds that they have three or more standard drinks on a typical day or they have six or more drinks on one occasion less than monthly or greater on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Concise (AUDIT-C), or any substance (drug) abuse, all of which may impact EEG measures.