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Migraines and meditation: does spirituality matter?
Amy B. Wachholtz Æ Kenneth I. Pargament
Accepted: May 7, 2008
Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008
Abstract Migraine headaches are associated with symp-
toms of depression and anxiety (Waldie and Poulton
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 72:
86–92, 2002) and feelings of low self-efficacy (French
et al. Headache, 40: 647–656, 2000). Previous research
suggests that spiritual meditation may ameliorate some of
the negative traits associated with migraine headaches
(Wachholtz and Pargament Journal of behavioral Medi-
cine, 30: 311–318, 2005). This study examined two pri-
mary questions: (1) Is spiritual meditation more effective in
enhancing pain tolerance and reducing migraine headache
related symptoms than secular meditation and relaxation?
and, (2) Does spiritual meditation create better mental,
physical, and spiritual health outcomes than secular med-
itation and relaxation techniques? Eighty-three meditation
naı
¨
ve, frequent migraineurs were taught Spiritual Medita-
tion, Internally Focused Secular Meditation, Externally
Focused Secular Meditation, or Muscle Relaxation which
participants practiced for 20 min a day for one month. Pre-
post tests measured pain tolerance (with a cold pressor
task), headache frequency, and mental and spiritual health
variables. Compared to the other three groups, those who
practiced spiritual meditation had greater decreases in the
frequency of migraine headaches, anxiety, and negative
affect, as well as greater increases in pain tolerance,
headache-related self-efficacy, daily spiritual experiences,
and existential well being.
Keywords Migraine Meditation Pain Spirituality
Headache
Introduction
Annually, 13% of the population of the United States suffers
at least one migraine headache (Stewart et al. 1992), though
the average migraineur experiences 34–37.5 attacks a year
(Hu et al. 1999). In addition to physical pain, migraines are
tied to significant psychological and economic costs.
Migraineurs tend to have high levels of depression and
anxiety (Stewart and Lipton 2002), and migraine headaches
have a profoundly negative impact on sufferers’ quality of
life (Bigal et al. 2001). Lost labor costs due to migraines are
estimated at $13 billion per year (Hu et al. 1999).
Literature reviews have described a variety of non-
pharmacological approaches to preventing and aborting
headache pain (Penzien et al. 2002). Common forms of
non-pharmacological approaches include biofeedback (e.g.
electromyography, vascular warming), relaxation training,
and coping skills training. These studies show that some
non-pharmacological approaches are equal to, or better
than, drugs at reducing or preventing headache pain. There
is, however, a dearth of literature on two non-pharmaco-
logical approaches for migraine headache pain: meditation
and spiritual experiences. Only two empirical studies have
explored the potential benefits of meditation on headache
pain. No studies to date have focused specifically on the
role of spirituality in coping with headache pain.
Generally, meditation appears to have a positive effect
on positive emotional and physical health (Alexander et al.
1991; Astin 1997). Meditation has proven effective in
reducing physiological and psychological arousal to stress
(Wachholtz and Pargament 2005), and those practicing
A. B. Wachholtz (&)
Department of Psychiatry, University of Mass Medical Center,
55 Lake Ave, Worcester, MA 01655, USA
e-mail: WachholA@ummhc.org
K. I. Pargament
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
123
J Behav Med
DOI 10.1007/s10865-008-9159-2
meditation have 50–70% fewer all-cause hospital admis-
sions and outpatient medical visits (Orme-Johnson 1987).
Religious and spiritual experiences may also buffer the
negative physical and psychological consequences of
migraines. Previous studies suggest that religion and spir-
ituality reduce anxiety and depression, have a positive
effect on health, and decrease mortality among a medically
ill population (Koenig et al. 2001, for a review). Further,
accessing spiritual resources has been related to improved
tolerance of chronic pain (Keefe et al. 2001), and acute
pain (Wachholtz and Pargament 2005).
Integrating spiritual resources within the context of medi-
tation may help individuals increase pain tolerance, reduce
depression and anxiety, improve spiritual health and enhance
quality of life. In support of this idea, a recent study showed
that, in comparison to a secular meditation, spiritual medita-
tion was more effective in increasing participants’ pain tol-
erance and their number of daily spiritual experiences, and
decreasing negative affect (Wachholtz and Pargament 2005).
These positive spiritual, psychological, and physical effects
suggest that a spiritual meditation technique may assist indi-
viduals who are suffering from migraine headaches. This
study tested the hypothesis that spiritual meditation is more
effective than secular meditationor relaxationfor migraineurs.
Migraine headaches
Migraine headaches are characterized by intense, unilateral
throbbing pain, accompanied by nausea, and either photo- or
phono-phobia (International Headache Society 2004). Even
between headache attacks, migraineurs have increased sen-
sitivity to pain (Main et al. 2000; Rojahn and Gerhards 1986).
A large percentage of migraineurs are classified with
‘‘frequent migraine headaches,’’ indicating that they
experience an average of two or more migraine headaches
a month. Almost half of all female migraineurs (49%), and
35% of male migraineurs report that they experience
twenty-four or more migraine headaches each year (Lipton
et al. 2002). Over one-quarter of migraineurs report mul-
tiple migraine headaches per week (Lipton et al. 2002).
However, despite the negative physical and emotional
impact of migraine headaches, it is estimated that 16% of
all migraineurs have consulted a physician about their
headaches in the past year (Lipton et al. 1998). Further,
over 30% of migraineurs have never consulted a physician
about their headaches (Lipton et al. 2002).
Even once migraineurs seek treatment, currently many
of the pharmacological treatments of migraines are unsat-
isfactory in several respects; they are prohibitively expen-
sive, do not work for many people, do not completely
remove the pain, do not appear to reduce migraineurs
elevated pain sensitivity between headaches, do not prevent
reoccurrence of the headaches, and have negative side
effects (Goadsby et al. 2002). Given the difficulties with
pharmacological efficacy for migraines, migraineurs ap-
pear to be an ideal population in which to study alternative
practices to headache pain control and prevention.
Migraine headaches and negative emotions
Migraineurs appear to have greater psychosomatic sensi-
tivity to stress. Huber and Henrich (2003) compared 30
migraineurs and 30 healthy controls and found that,
although migraineurs do not have more daily stress, they
do report elevated feelings of depression and anxiety in
response to that stress. Compared to controls, migraineurs
had greater difficulty relaxing and experienced increased
restlessness, and ill feelings during stressful situations
(Huber and Henrich 2003). Not only do migraineurs report
greater anxiety than non-headache controls, they also
report that anxiety (57.9%), worry (58.6%), and irritation
(55.3%) can trigger migraine attacks (Lateri-Minet et al.
2003). Further, this pattern of high anxiety and depression
is found among migraineurs around the world, including
China (Fan et al. 1999), New Zealand (Waldie and Poulton
2002), and Europe (Huber and Henrich 2003).
In a 26-year study of almost 1,000 migraineurs, Waldie
and Poulton (2002) found that migraine headaches were
linked to a history of depression and anxiety disorders and
high current stress reactivity. Among migraineurs, the
severity of depression and anxiety symptoms appear to be
related to headache frequency (Zwart et al. 2003). In
contrast, positive mood is linked to reduced pain reactivity
and increased pain tolerance (Lecci and Wirth 2000),
which suggests that interventions targeting mental health
factors can be effective in reducing negative emotions and
headache frequency in migraneurs (Fan et al. 1999).
It has been shown that people with chronic pain who feel
that they have no control over their pain often have more
negative pain experiences, greater disability, and less po-
sitive emotional health (Arnstein et al.1999). Providing
migraineurs with the tools to help them reduce their
headache frequency with psycho-social interventions is
likely to increase their perceived sense of control over the
onset, and duration of their headaches. When medically
compromised patients feel increased control over their
symptoms, they report improved mood (Keefe et al. 2001).
Further, one study indicated that headache patients who
reported greater feelings of pain self-efficacy had reduced
pain disability, more active coping, and improved headache
pain tolerance (French et al. 2000).
Migraine headaches and meditation
There are multiple ways that meditation may reduce the
frequency and severity of migraine headaches, and improve
J Behav Med
123
the quality of life of migraineurs. Relaxation is one method
that appears to be effective in reducing migraine head-
aches. A meta-analysis of major techniques for the
behavioral management of headaches showed that relaxa-
tion training generally results in a 35–40% reduction in the
frequency of headaches (Penzien et al. 2002). While
relaxation can reduce the frequency of migraine headaches,
meditation may enhance this state of relaxation.
Blanchard and colleagues (Blanchard et al. 1990) com-
pared the effects of thermal biofeedback, biofeedback plus
cognitive therapy, and ‘‘pseudomeditation’’ (body scan-
ning + mental control) on headache pain during a 16 ses-
sion protocol. The researchers defined pseudomeditation as
a combination of body awareness (becoming aware of
sensations associated with the body) and mental control
(creating images of participating in daily activities) without
any explicit instructions to relax or to divert attention away
from head pain. All three of the experimental groups had
significant reductions in the number and severity of head-
aches, and use of headache-related medication, however,
they found no differences between the three treatment
groups (Blanchard et al.). The pseudomeditation group was
intended to be an inert placebo-control, but in this study it
became an active and efficacious treatment group. The
distraction provided by the mental control and physical
relaxation effects of body scanning may have inadvertently
created an active treatment.
Migraine headaches and spiritual meditation
Spiritual forms of meditation may be especially helpful to
migraneurs. Correlational research has suggested that
individuals with strong religious and/or spiritual lives tend
to be healthier, psychologically and physically (Koenig
et al. 2001). In a meta-analysis of 147 independent studies
of religiousness and depressive symptoms, religiousness
appeared to protect against depression, particularly in times
of greater life stress (Smith et al. 2003). This relationship
also held true in a study of chronic pain patients; those who
reported more spiritual experiences also reported more
positive mental health (Rippentrop 2005). Furthermore, the
relationship between spirituality and mental health was
strongest among those reporting higher levels of pain.
A few studies have experimentally explored connections
between spiritual practices and physical or mental health.
Elkins et al. (1979) conducted one of the few research
projects that compared a relaxation technique (progressive
muscle relaxation) with a devotional practice (prayer). In
this study, 42 participants from similar religious and cul-
tural backgrounds were divided into three groups: pro-
gressive muscle relaxation, prayer, and control. After
10 days, both experimental groups reported significant
reductions in subjective stress. Given that stress appears to
be related migraine headache attacks, this study may have
implications for migraineurs.
In the Elkins et al. (1979) study, prayer required con-
scious control, to verbalize thoughts in communication with
God. Carlson et al. (1988) compared the effects of a more
free form of Christian devotional practice with progressive
muscle relaxation. They divided 36 Christian participants
into three groups: Devotional Meditation group which
meditated on the 23rd Psalm, Progressive Muscle Relaxa-
tion group, and Control group. The Meditation group and
the Relaxation group performed their activities 20 min a
day for two-weeks. At the end of a two-week program, the
Meditation group reported less anxiety and anger than those
who underwent the two-week relaxation program. In addi-
tion, the Meditation group had less muscle tension (reduced
EMG activity). Their study indicated that religious reflec-
tion was associated with better results than progressive
muscle relaxation. Therefore, despite the rather limited
treatment-outcome literature on spiritual practices and
health, these findings suggest that spiritual practices may
add a unique factor to a relaxation technique, and again,
may positively affect migraineurs’ experience of pain.
Though the literature addressing links between specific
devotional practices and health is sparse, there is one form
of spiritual meditation that has been studied in a number of
contexts, transcendental meditation. This form of spiritual
meditation has been shown to affect a number of factors that
may impact migraine headaches: lower heart rate, blood
pressure (Wenneberg et al. 1997); enhanced autonomic
stability during mentally stressful tasks (Alexander et al.
1989); elevated vasopression and altered endocrine
response to stress (O’Halloran et al. 1985). Researchers
suggest that the benefits of this type of meditation stem from
the fact that it is a spiritual experience which is qualitatively
different than simply a physical (like progressive muscle
relaxation) or educational one (Alexander et al. 1991).
To test this idea, Wenneberg et al. (1997) divided 66
participants into two groups, stress reduction education,
and spiritual meditation training. High compliance medi-
tators demonstrated significant reductions in blood pressure
over the course of the study. This group also showed sig-
nificantly lower blood pressure levels than the low com-
pliance meditation group and individuals in the stress
education group (Wenneberg et al. 1997).
Alexander et al. (
1991) performed a meta-analysis of
the transcendental meditation research. They examined 18
major studies with over 1,200 participants who ranged in
meditation experience from five weeks to five years. The
researchers reported that within three days of beginning to
practice the spiritual meditation, individuals began to show
psychological (e.g. improved mood) and physiological
changes (e.g. decreased blood pressure). Proponents claim
that spiritual meditation practitioners open themselves up
J Behav Med
123
to new spiritual experiences; these new spiritual experi-
ences then provide additional spiritual resources that allow
them to adapt better to stress, which, in turn, results in
better mental and physical health.
A recent study by Wachholtz and Pargament (2005)
specifically compared the efficacy of spiritual meditation,
secular meditation, and muscle relaxation techniques; the
findings have implications for migraineurs. Sixty-eight
meditation-naı
¨
ve undergraduates were taught one of three
relaxation or meditation techniques which they practiced
independently for two weeks. Following the two-week
period, participants practiced their technique for 20 min
while their heart rate was monitored. After the 20 min,
participants placed their hand in 2
o
C water for as long as
they could endure the cold-induced pain. Individuals in the
spiritual meditation group demonstrated significantly
greater pain tolerance, enduring the cold almost twice as
long as the secular-based technique groups. While partic-
ipants in all three groups rated the stimulus as equally
painful, use of the spiritual technique appeared to create a
greater endurance of that pain (Wachholtz and Pargament
2005). This finding suggests that spiritual meditation
may help migraneurs better endure the pain of migraine
headaches.
When people use positive religious coping for pain
management, they report stronger feelings of spiritual
support from God (Keefe et al. 2001) and more spiritual
experiences (Wachholtz and Pargament 2005). While
spiritual experiences may occur during secular meditation,
empirical studies indicate that they occur less often and
with less intensity than among those using spiritual medi-
tation (Astin 1997; Wachholtz and Pargament 2005). Thus,
spiritual experiences may be linked to less sensitivity to
body pain (e.g., Buenaver 2003) resulting in greater
headache endurance. Greater endurance may allow mi-
graineurs to continue to participate in activities despite
migraine pain or to better tolerate the period between mi-
graine pain onset and medication efficacy.
Present study
Previous research indicates that spiritual meditation may
increase pain tolerance and decrease negative affect and
anxiety symptoms, while increasing daily spiritual experi-
ences. However, there is no research on the impact of
spiritual meditation on people who suffer from migraine
headaches. This study addresses this gap in the literature. It
examines two primary questions: 1) Is spiritual meditation
more effective in enhancing pain tolerance and reducing
migraine headache related symptoms than secular medita-
tion and relaxation? and, 2) Does spiritual meditation
create better mental, physical, and spiritual health out-
comes than secular meditation and relaxation techniques?
We reasoned that there are multiple pathways through
which spiritual meditation may be effective in helping
frequent migraineurs cope with pain (Wachholtz et al.
2007). As a result, spiritual meditators may able to endure
higher levels of pain and prolonged exposure to uncom-
fortable situations (Alexander et al. 1994; Wachholtz et al.
2007). However, we wanted to test whether including
spiritual content into a meditative phrase represents a
critical ingredient to the meditation process. It could be
argued that a spiritual meditative phrase operates similarly
to any distracting phrase, or more specifically, to an
externally-oriented or internally-oriented phrase. To test
this possibility, we compared spiritual meditation to three
contrasting conditions: relaxation and two types of secular
meditation, a secular meditation that focused on an inter-
nally focused secular phrase and a secular meditation that
focused on an externally focused phrase.
Method
Participants
Eighty-three participants completed the entire study. All
participants met the criteria for vascular headache (mi-
graine; mixed migraine + tension headache) based on the
criteria of the International Headache Society (2004).
Participants were at least 18 years old, and experienced at
least two migraine headaches in the previous month. Par-
ticipants could have no history of diabetes or Raynaud’s
syndrome diagnosis. There were 75 women and 8 men with
a mean age of 19.1 (SD = 1.10) (See Table 1). The 83
Participants were randomly divided into four groups:
Spiritual Meditation (22 participants), Internal Secular
Meditation (21 participants), External Secular Meditation
(20 participants), and Relaxation (20 participants). There
were no significant differences between the groups on any
of the pre-test variables. Based on previous research, it was
determined that each group required a minimum of 20
participants to achieve power of .80.
Ninety-two individuals initially enrolled in the study but
nine participants did not complete the study (See Fig. 1).
Two participants from the Relaxation group, three from the
External Secular Meditation group, one from the Internal
Secular Meditation group, and three from the Spiritual
Meditation group did not complete the study, or showed
less than 50% adherence to the meditation/relaxation pro-
tocol. All noncompleters that were reached to discuss their
study involvement reported time constraints as their reason
for dropping out of the study. Only two of the six non-
completers (1 from Relaxation, 1 from External Secular
Meditation) eventually returned to fill out post-test surveys.
There were no differences between those who completed
J Behav Med
123
the study and those who dropped out on demographic, or
pre-test variables, except on the number of reported
headaches experienced in the month prior to the interven-
tion (3.22 headaches in the drop-out group versus 12.28
headaches in the completer group). Those with fewer
headaches were likely less motivated to complete the study
than those who experienced more headaches.
Screen
All participants passed the ID Migraine Screener which
was given immediately after participants consented to join
the study (Lipton et al. 2003). This 3-question (yes/no)
migraine headache screen provides a brief assessment
of headaches to determine if the headache qualifies as a
migraine headache. Two or more positive responses are
required to identify migraine headaches. When studied by
Lipton et al., the measure displayed a sensitivity of 0.81,
specificity of 0.75, and a positive predictive value of 0.93
(Lipton et al. 2003).
Adherence
Adherence was measured through a diary in which par-
ticipants recorded their daily practice of their technique.
Participants were required to complete their meditation
task for at least 15 days. Those who did not meditate for
at least 15 days (3 participants), and those who did not
arrive for their individual appointment at 30 days (6 par-
ticipants) and failed to respond to researchers’ attempts to
Table 1 Demographics by
group*
* There were no significant
differences between any of the
groups on any of the variables
Key:
SP = Spiritual Meditation
Group
IS = Internal Secular
Meditation Group
ES = External Secular
Meditation Group
RL = Progressive Muscle
Relaxation Group
All N (%) SP N (%) IS N (%) ES N (%) RL N (%)
Gender
Women 75 (90.4%) 19 (85.5%) 19 (90.5%) 19 (95%) 18 (90%)
Men 8 (9.6%) 3 (13.6%) 2 (9.5%) 1 (5%) 2 (10%)
Race
White 61 (73%) 15 (68.2%) 15 (71.4%) 15 (75%) 16 (80%)
Black 9 (10.8%) 1 (4.5%) 3 (14.3%) 4 (20%) 1 (5%)
Hispanic 6 (7.2%) 2 (9.1%) 1 (4.8%) 1 (5%) 2 (10%)
Other/Multi-racial 7 (9%) 4 (18.2%) 2 (9.6%) 0 1 (5%)
Age
M(SD) 19.1 (1.10) 19.5 (.91) 18.7 (.78) 19.2 (1.67) 18.9 (.72)
Community
Student 81 (97.6%) 21 (95.5%) 21 (100%) 20 (95.2%) 20 (100%)
University—affiliated 2 (2.4%) 1 (4.5%) 0 (0%) 1 (4.8%) 0 (0%)
Religion
Protestant 42 (50.6%) 11 (50.0%) 8 (38%) 12 (60%) 11 (55%)
Catholic 33 (39.8%) 10 (45.5%) 11 (52.4%) 5 (25%) 7 (35%)
Agnostic 6 (7.2%) 1 (4.5%) 1 (4.8%) 2 (10%) 2 (10%)
Other 2 (2.4%) 0 1 (4.8%) 1 (5%) 0
Prayer frequency
Never 9 (10.8%) 2 (9.1%) 3 (14.3%) 2 (10%) 2 (10%)
Formal 7 (8.4%) 2 (9.1%) 3 (14.3%) 1 (5%) 1 (5%)
During stress 30 (36.1%) 10 (45.5%) 8 (38.1%) 6 (30%) 6 (30%)
Regularly 37 (44.6%) 8 (36.4%) 7 (33.3%) 11 (55%) 11 (55%)
Religious person
Not religious 11 (13.3%) 5 (22.7%) 2 (9.5%) 3 (15%) 1 (5%)
Slightly religious 21 (25.3%) 5 (22.7%) 8 (38.1%) 4 (20%) 4 (20%)
Mod religious 38 (45.8%) 11 (50.0%) 9 (42.9%) 8 (40%) 10 (50%)
Very religious 9 (15.7%) 1 (4.5%) 2 (9.5%) 5 (25%) 5 (25%)
Spiritual person
Not spiritual 9 (10.8%) 2 (9.1%) 1 (4.8%) 3 (15%) 3 (15%)
Slightly spiritual 24 (28.9%) 3 (13.6%) 7 (33.3%) 6 (30%) 5 (25%)
Mod spiritual 34 (41.0%) 11 (50.0%) 10 (47.6%) 6 (30%) 7 (35%)
Very spiritual 16 (19.3%) 3 (13.6%) 3 (14.3%) 5 (25%) 5 (25%)
J Behav Med
123
contact them to reschedule were classified as dropouts (see
Fig. 1). Among those participants with at least 15 days
adherence, there was no difference between the groups on
the number of days practicing their assigned meditation/
relaxation, (F (3, 79) = 0.75, p = NS). Adherence was
likely high since participants were requested not to begin
the study unless they felt that they could make the
appropriate time commitment to completing the study. No
potential participants reported that they did not have suf-
ficient time to complete the 20 min daily time require-
ment.
Manipulation check
In order to assess how the interventions were perceived by
participants, a brief manipulation check measure was used.
Participants rated their perception of how relaxed they
became during their assigned technique, and how stressful
they found the cold pressor task. Ratings were on a 0–5
Likert-type scale with higher scales indicating greater
relaxation or stressfulness, respectively.
Pain measures
Headache frequency and severity
Participants recorded the frequency and severity of their
headaches in their practice diaries during the study and
used retrospective recall to record the number of headaches
in the month prior to the study. The number of headaches
reported by participants for the month prior to the study
was compared to the number of headaches reported over
the course of the intervention. Participants rated the
severity of each headache on a 0–10 scale where 0 equated
to ‘‘no pain’’ and 10 was ‘‘the worst pain possible.’’
Pain tolerance
Objective measurements of pain tolerance were taken prior
to and after a month of daily practice of the assigned
technique by timing the duration that the participant re-
mained in contact with the cold water during the cold
pressor task.
Psychological measures
Affect
The Positive and Negative Affect Scale consists of two—
10 item subscales that assesses positive and negative affect,
respectively (Watson et al. 1988). The positive affect
subscale has convergent validity with other brief positive
affect measures (.81–.92), and the negative affect subscale
also converges with brief negative affect measures (.76–
.91). Further, the short-term, state-like version of the
questionnaire shows moderately high stability when given
Enrollment
92 Participants
Randomized
Spiritual Meditation
Group
25 Participants
Randomized
2 Participants Did Not
Complete Session 2 as
scheduled
1 Participant Removed
due to <50%
Adherence
22 Participants’ Data
Analyzed
Internal Secular
Meditation Group
22 Participants
Randomized
1 Participant Did Not
Complete Session 2
as scheduled
21 Participants’ Data
Analyzed
Relaxation Group
22 Participants
Randomized
2 Participants Did Not
Complete Session 2 as
scheduled
20 Participants’ Data
Analyzed
External Secular
Meditation Group
23 Participants
Randomized
1 Participants Did Not
Complete Session 2 as
scheduled
2 Participants Removed
due to <50%
Adherence
20 Participants’ Data
Analyzed
Fig. 1 Participant flow diagram
J Behav Med
123
for an 8-week retest, .54 for the positive affect scale, and
.45 for the negative affect scale. In previous research, both
the positive and negative scales show high internal con-
sistencies, .89 for positive affect, and .85 for negative af-
fect with a negative correlation (r =-.15) between the
two scales. In the present study, internal reliability was
a = .83 on the pre-test and a = .87 on the post-test for the
negative affect scale; the positive affect scale’s.internal
reliability was a = .81 on the pre-test and a = .85 on the
post-test.
Anxiety
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory is a 20-item self-report
inventory designed to capture transient and stable anxiety
levels. Individual items are scored from 1–4 with higher
scores indicating higher levels of anxiety. Modern norms
for the state scale yield an internal reliability alpha of .91
(Scott and Melin 1998). In the present study, internal
reliability for the state anxiety scale was a = .90.The state
anxiety scale has shown concurrent validity with other
anxiety questionnaires ranging from .73–.85. It was used to
identify group differences in anticipatory anxiety to the
cold pressor task. Previous research has shown the trait
anxiety scale has an internal reliability alpha of .91
(Spielberger 1983). In the present study, internal reliability
was a = .88 on the pre-test and a = .86 on the post-test for
trait anxiety.
Depression
The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale is
a 20-item self-report measure of depressive affect experi-
enced in the previous week (Radloff 1977). Individual
items are scored from 1–4 with higher scores indicating
higher levels of depressive symptoms. Previous research
has shown it has high internal reliability (a = .87) and
convergent validity with other depression scales (.51–.85).
In the current study, internal reliability was a = .87 on the
pre-test and a = .83 on the post-test.
Headache specific surveys
Quality of life
The Migraine Specific Quality of Life Scale is a 25-item,
self-report scale that measures the impact that migraine
headaches have on the lives of migraineurs (Wagner et al.
1996). Items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale with
higher scores representing greater quality of life. Wagner,
et al, showed that the scale has concurrent validity with
both the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (Stewart and
Ware 1991) and the Psychological General Well-Being
Schedule (McDowell 1996). Internal reliability has been
shown to be extremely high in previous research (a = .92)
as is one week test-retest reliability (r = .90). In the
present study, internal reliability was a = .89 on the pre-
test and a =
.91 on the post-test.
Self-efficacy
The Headache Management Self-Efficacy Scale is a 25-
item, self-report scale assessing feelings of personal control
over the onset, frequency, duration, and severity of serious
headaches (French et al. 2000). Items are scored from 1–7
and higher scores indicate greater feelings of headache-
related self-efficacy. It has concurrent validity with internal
loci of control (.40) and is inversely related to feelings of
chance loci of control (-.64), and headache related dis-
ability (-.24) (French et al. 2000). In previous research,
the scale displayed an internal reliability of .90 (French
et al. 2000); in the current study, internal reliability was
a = .87 on the pre-test and a = .90 on the post-test.
Spirituality measures
Religious demographics
Parts of The Brief Multidimensional Measure of Reli-
giousness/Spirituality developed by Fetzer /National Insti-
tute on Aging assessed participants’ spiritual life (Fetzer
1999). There are two domains that were used. The two-
item Religious Intensity (e.g. To what extent do you con-
sider yourself a religious person?) has a reliability rating of
a = .77 and explores the self-reported levels of religious-
ness and spirituality. The five-item Private Religious
Activities (e.g. Which of the following best describes your
practice of prayer or religious meditation? Daily, During
times of stress, During formal ceremonies only, Never)
asks about spiritual or religious practices and has a reli-
ability of a = .72 (Fetzer).
Spiritual well being
The Spiritual Well Being Scale was developed by
Paloutzian and Ellison in 1982 to measure Religious Well
Being, the individual’s feelings of personal well-being with
God, and Existential Well Being, a more horizontal mea-
sure of well being between self and others. These subscales
can also be combined into a single score. Each subscale
consists of 10 items, scored on a 6-point Likert scale with
higher scores indicating greater feelings of well-being in
that domain. Validity information indicates that scores on
the two subscales and the combined scale correlate with
J Behav Med
123
indicators of positive psychological quality of life (higher
sense of purpose in life, etc.) (Boivin et al. 1999). Previous
research has shown internal reliability coefficients ranging
from .89 to .94. In the current study, internal reliability was
a = .94 on the pre-test and a = .93 on the post-test.
Spiritual experiences
The Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale is a 16-item scale
that was designed by Underwood and included in the 1999
Fetzer Report. It measures how frequently individuals
experience behaviors and emotions related to the tran-
scendent in their daily life (Underwood and Teresi 2002).
Items are scored on a 6—point Likert Scale. Greater scores
indicate greater number daily spiritual experiences, such as
‘‘a feeling of deep inner peace or harmony.’’ Internal
reliability estimates range from .91 to .95 in previous re-
search (Fetzer). In the current study, internal reliability was
a = .92 on the pre-test and a = .93 on the post-test.
Procedure
Participants were recruited from psychology classes at a
mid-size mid-western university and through flyers and
advertisements in the local community surrounding the
university. Participants were recruited and assessed from
January to May 2005. All research procedures were
approved by the university’s Institutional Review Board.
Research assistants were not blind to the treatment
protocols for the groups, although they were blind to the
study hypotheses. Prior to engaging in the project, research
assistants were instructed on how to present the meditation
or relaxation techniques. They were observed in teaching
mock sessions by the principal investigator. Each research
assistant taught an equal number of classes in each group.
Participant contact took place in two phases. Initially,
interested individuals met in a group with five to ten other
potential participants. At that meeting, research assistants
described the project to potential participants and answered
questions. After the individuals agreed to participate, they
signed the informed consent. No one who chose to attend
the group session refused to participate after hearing what
participation in the study would entail. Participants com-
pleted a survey packet consisting of demographic, psy-
chological, spiritual, and health assessment tools. As
participants completed the survey packet, the research
assistants took the participants from the room individually
to complete a cold pressor task. After all participants
completed the survey and the cold pressor task, research
assistants randomly assigned participants to a group with a
random number generator.
Each treatment group separated from the larger group
and was trained in how to perform their assigned medita-
tion/relaxation task. Participants were taught to sit in a
quiet room, without any distractions (e.g. no television,
radio). They were taught to wear comfortable clothing and
told that they could sit in any position they would like, as
long as they would not fall asleep. They were encouraged
to pick a time during the day that they could use for their
regular relaxation/meditation time. During the session,
participants discussed problems that frequently arise
among new practitioners of relaxation/meditation (e.g.
losing focus) and how to solve the problem and continue
relaxing/meditating.
Meditation participants were instructed to begin their
meditation by softly repeating their meditation aloud a few
times to help them focus, and then to continue to silently
focus on the phrase, and how the phrase is reflected in their
lives. If the participants felt they were losing focus, they
should repeat the phrase aloud to refocus and then continue
with the silent meditation. All meditation participants re-
ceived the same training; the only difference was the set of
meditative phrases available from which they could
choose. Spiritual Meditation participants were allowed to
choose one of four spiritual meditative phrases: ‘‘God is
peace,’’ ‘‘God is joy,’’ ‘‘God is good,’’ and ‘‘God is love.’’
Those who were uncomfortable with the term ‘‘God’’ were
allowed to choose another term that they felt better re-
flected the focus of their spirituality, only one participant
chose to use an alternate term. He chose to use ‘‘Mother
Earth’’ instead of ‘‘God.’’ Internal Secular Meditation
participants chose from four internally focused secular
phrases: ‘‘I am content,’’ ‘‘I am joyful,’’ ‘‘I am good,’’ ‘‘I
am happy.’’ In the External Secular Meditation group,
participants chose from four externally focused secular
meditation phrases: ‘‘Grass is green,’’ ‘‘Sand is soft,’’
‘‘Cotton is fluffy,’’ ‘‘Cloth is smooth.’’ The participants
were asked to practice their meditation for 20 min per day
for 30 days.
Relaxation participants were taught a progressive mus-
cle relaxation (Wachholtz 2007) in which they tensed and
released muscle groups in their bodies. The relaxation
group was not provided a meditation phrase.
In each group, instructors then led the participants
through a practice meditation or relaxation. After the
practice period, participants were also encouraged to ask
questions from the instructors and to contact them if they
encountered additional difficulties over the course of the
study.
During the one-month of meditation/relaxation practice,
participants received weekly emails reminding them of their
upcoming appointment, and the contact information for their
group leader if they had any questions. Following one month
of meditation practice, participants returned to the lab. After
they arrived, they rested for 5 min, during that time they
completed the State Anxiety Inventory to assess anticipatory
J Behav Med
123
anxiety. Then, participants began a 20-min meditation/
relaxation period. After which, participants continued their
technique as they placed their hand in the cold water bath up
to their wrist and were instructed to maintain contact ‘‘until it
becomes too uncomfortable.’’ When they removed their
hand from the cold pressor bath, the participants completed a
second survey packet containing the psychological, spiri-
tual, and health assessment tools.
Results
Group by Time (4 9 2) ANOVAs were used to identify
simple main effects and significant interactions. Significant
interactions were further investigated with analysis of
change scores. For measures that were given at two time
points, change scores were analyzed using one way
ANOVAs to assess whether the four groups changed in
different ways over time. Least Square Differences post-
hoc tests were used to identify the relationship between the
groups’ change scores. With respect to those variables that
were assessed only at pre-test (e.g. demographic variables)
or post-test (e.g. manipulation checks), one way ANOVAs
were conducted to test for differences between the four
groups (see Table 2). Data analysis was conducted using
SPSS 13.0 software (SPSS 2004).
Exploratory analyses of mediation factors used linear
regression to assess if psychological factors (self-efficacy,
affect, anxiety, depression, or quality of life) explained the
association between outcome variables (headache fre-
quency post-intervention, change in headache frequency,
pain tolerance post-intervention, change in pain tolerance)
and spiritual variables (spiritual well being, religious well
being, existential well being, daily spiritual experiences).
Manipulation check
A manipulation check assessed the perceived stressfulness
of the cold pressor task and the perceived relaxation
stemming from their assigned technique. There was no
subjective difference between the groups on the stressful-
ness of the cold pressor task (F (3,79) = 0.69, p=NS,
g
2
= .025); participants in each group rated their task
‘‘somewhat’’ stressful (M = 2.0, SD = 1.07, range 1.7–
2.1). There was also no subjective difference on the level of
relaxation experienced between the groups during their
assigned tasks as they rated the tasks ‘‘moderately’’
relaxing (F(3,79) = 0.19, p = NS, g
2
= .007; M = 3.5,
SD = .95, range 3.4–3.6). To identify their anxiety related
to the cold pressor task, participants completed the State
Anxiety Inventory, there was no significant difference
between the groups (F (3,79) = 1.17, p=NS, g
2
= .036)
on state anxiety.
Pain measures
Headaches
An analysis of participants’ headaches showed a significant
time (pre, post) period by group interaction for the number
of reported headaches (F(3,79) = 15.68, p \ .001) with a
strong effect size (g
2
= .37). The interaction indicated that
the Spiritual Meditation group reported a significantly
greater reduction in number of headaches over the course
of the study compared to the other groups (See Fig. 2).
Those in the Spiritual Meditation group showed a signifi-
cantly greater reduction in headache frequency than all
three other groups: Internal Secular Meditation (p \ .01,
g
2
= .22), External Secular Meditation (p \ .001; g
2
=
.82), Relaxation (p \ .001; g
2
= .37). The Internal Secular
Meditation group reported a greater reduction in the
number of headaches than the External Secular Meditation
(p \ .01; g
2
= .29), or Relaxation (p \ .01; g
2
= .11)
groups.
Headache severity showed a significant effect by time
(F(5, 395) = 8.23, p \ .001, g
2
= .14). However, there
was no time 9 group interaction effect (F(15,231) = 0.83,
p = NS, g
2
= .06).
Pain tolerance
A significant interaction also appeared in the level of pain
tolerance displayed by the different groups prior to the
intervention and after the intervention (F(3,79) = 4.00,
p \ .01) with a moderate effect size (g
2
= .13). The
interaction showed that the Spiritual Meditation group
reported a significantly greater increase in pain tolerance
compared to the other groups over the course of the
intervention (Fig. 3). The Spiritual Meditation group
experienced a significantly greater increase in pain toler-
ance than the Internal Secular Meditation (p \ .001;
g
2
= .19), External Secular Meditation (p \.05; g
2
= .13)
or Relaxation (p \ .01; g
2
= .11) groups.
Psychological measures
Negative affect
A significant time 9 treatment interaction effect was found
for negative mood (F (3,79) = 4.73, p \ .01) with a
moderate effect size (g
2
= .15). The interaction showed
that the Spiritual Meditation group experienced a greater
drop in negative affect scores compared to the other
groups. Specifically, the Spiritual Meditation group
reported a significantly greater drop in negative affect over
the course of the study than the Internal Secular Meditation
J Behav Med
123
(p \ .001; g
2
= .25), or External Secular Meditation
(p \ .01; g
2
= .15) groups. Similarly, the Relaxation
group scores showed significantly greater reduction in
negative affect over the duration of the intervention than
the Internal Secular Meditation group (p \ .05; g
2
= .12),
and marginally less than the External Secular Meditation
group (p \ .10; g
2
= .06).
Positive affect
Though the scores suggest that three of the four groups
(Spiritual Meditation, Internal Secular Meditation, Relax-
ation) experienced some modest improvement in their
positive affect, this was not significant (F (3,79) = .26,
p = NS, g
2
= .01).
Table 2 Means of key
variables by group and time*
* There were no pre-test
differences between the groups
Superscript letters indicate a
significant time 9 group
interaction between the two
groups that share the same
letter.
a,b
p \ .10,
c,d
p \ .05,
e,f,g,h,i
p \ .01
SP M(SD) IS M(SD) ES M(SD) RL M(SD)
Headaches/month
Pre 13.7 (6.36) 12.8 (5.10) 11.1 (5.24) 11.4 (6.25)
Post 8.7 (5.19)
e,f,g
9.7 (5.23)
e,h,i
10.4 (6.30)
f,h
10.1 (5.72)
g,i
Headache severity
Pre 4.4 (.95) 4.7 (.66) 4.5 (.69) 4.6 (.69)
Post 3.9 (.77) 3.9 (.92) 4.1 (1.19) 4.0 (1.03)
Intervention adherence for those with [15 days
M days (SD) 25.6 (3.47) 27 (2.81) 26.2 (3.48) 25.8 (3.37)
Pain tolerance
Pre 39.1 (31.69) 43.7 (62.91) 43.1 (62.00) 44.6 (63.45)
Post 112.1 (81.90)
c,e,f
47.1 (41.21)
e
70.2 (82.56)
c
63.2 (72.66)
f
Positive affect scale
Pre 34.2 (6.20) 33.1 (5.62) 34.2 (5.61) 32.8 (5.99)
Post 36.5 (6.46) 35.6 (4.65) 34.8 (8.38) 34.9 (6.61)
Negative affect scale
Pre 25.9 (6.56) 23.1 (6.92) 21.1 (6.22) 24.6 (6.25)
Post 16.9 (4.20)
e,f
22.2 (7.13)
c,e
19.0 (4.78)
a,f
18.4 (7.50)
a,c
Trait anxiety inventory
Pre 41.2 (10.65) 43.6 (10.19) 40.7 (6.91) 43.7 (7.88)
Post 32.0 (6.93)
a,e
37.4 (9.90)
a,c
37.6 (6.21)
e
34.5 (6.61)
c
CES-depression
Pre 35.9 (10.66) 37.6 (9.75) 34.6 (8.34) 37.2 (7.33)
Post 31.0 (7.45) 34.2 (9.89) 29.3 (4.80) 29.4 (7.11)
Migraine-quality of life
Pre 77.3 (10.17) 75.8 (12.81) 76.7 (8.50) 76.7 (10.69)
Post 82.0 (11.76) 79.0 (8.67) 77.1 (10.80) 76.4 (12.68)
Headache self-efficacy
Pre 110.6 (22.89) 105.4 (15.78) 102.4 (24.08) 103.3 (20.62)
Post 123.1 (20.54)
a,e
107.2 (17.17)
b,e
117.6 (21.58)
b
113.1 (15.89)
a
Daily spiritual exp
Pre 40.6 (17.08) 42.6 (19.22) 40.4 (14.38) 41.7 (14.74)
Post 55.8 (15.14)
a,c,e
43.0 (18.17)
c
43.9 (13.74)
a
41.8 (15.84)
e
Spiritual well being
Pre 93.4 (18.64) 93.1 (17.80) 95.5 (18.11) 92.8 (15.18)
Post 100.6 (15.52) 97.3 (16.68) 96.1 (17.08) 97.9 (14.13)
Religious well being
Pre 44.5 (12.13) 44.4 (11.20) 46.8 (14.23) 44.9 (9.30)
Post 47.1 (12.72) 47.6 (11.58) 47.4 (15.10) 47.2 (9.14)
Existential well being
Pre 48.1 (8.27) 48.7 (8.87) 48.8 (5.59) 47.9 (8.17)
Post 53.5 (5.63)
c,e
49.6 (7.49)
c
48.6 (6.14)
e
50.7 (6.35)
J Behav Med
123
Trait anxiety
A time 9 treatment interaction occurred for trait anxiety (F
(3,79) = 3.31, p \ .05) with a small to moderate effect size
(g
2
= .11). The Spiritual Meditation group experienced a
significantly larger decrease in trait anxiety compared to the
other groups over the intervention (See Fig. 4). The Spiri-
tual Meditation group experienced a significantly greater
drop in trait anxiety than the External Secular Meditation
(p \ .01; g
2
= .15), and marginally greater drop than the
Internal Secular Meditation group (p \ .10; g
2
= .07). The
Relaxation group reported a greater drop than the External
Secular Meditation group (p \ .05; g
2
= .13).
Depression
There was no significant interaction for depression
(F (3,79) = 0.96, p=NS, g
2
= .04), although the scores
suggest that all groups had a mild reduction in their
depression scores during the study.
Headache specific surveys
Migraine specific quality of life
While the Migraine Specific Quality of Life scores
suggested that the Spiritual Meditation and Internal Secular
Meditation groups had mild improvement in their reported
quality of life, this was not a significant effect
(F (3,79) = 0.71, p=NS, g
2
= .03).
Self-efficacy
A significant time 9 treatment interaction occurred
with respect to headache self-management efficacy
(F (3,79) = 2.99, p \ .05). The magnitude of this effect
size was moderate (g
2
= .10). The interaction effect showed
that the Spiritual Meditation group reported greater in-
creases in headache self-efficacy over the course of the
study than the other groups. Participants in the Spiritual
Meditation group reported a significantly greater increase
in their headache management efficacy than those in the
Internal Secular Meditation (p \ .005; g
2
= .19) group and
marginally greater efficacy than those in the Relaxation
(p \ .10; g
2
= .06) group. The Internal Secular Medita-
tion group also reported a marginally greater increase in
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Pre-Treatment Post-Treatment
Spiritual Meditation
Internal Secular Meditation
External Secular Meditation
Relaxation
Headaches (per month)
Fig. 2 Headaches per month by group and time
25
35
45
55
65
75
85
95
105
115
125
Pre-Treatment
Spiritual Meditation
Internal Secular Meditation
External Secular Meditation
Relaxation
Pain Tolerance (sec)
Post-Treatment
Fig. 3 Pain tolerance by group and time
30
32
34
36
38
40
42
44
46
Pre-Treatment
Spiritual Meditation
Internal Secular Meditation
External Secular Meditation
Relaxation
Trait Anxiety
Post-Treatment
Fig. 4 Trait anxiety by group and time
J Behav Med
123
efficacy compared to the External Secular Meditation
group (p \ .10; g
2
= .10).
Spiritual measures
Spiritual well being
There was no significant time by group interaction on
general Spiritual Well Being (F (3,79) = 1.48, p=NS,
g
2
= .05), or the Religious Well Being subscale (F
(3,79) = 0.76, p=NS, g
2
= .03). However, on the Exis-
tential Well-Being subscale a significant interaction (F
(3,79) = 2.13, p \ .05) was found which accounted for a
small amount of variance (g
2
= .09). While all groups
experienced an increase in existential well being over the
course of the study, the Spiritual Meditation group expe-
rienced a greater increase in existential well being than the
Internal Secular Meditation (p \ .05; g
2
= .09), and
External Secular Meditation (p \ .01; g
2
= .13) groups.
Spiritual experiences
The ANOVA yielded a significant time 9 treatment
interaction on the frequency of reported daily spiritual
experiences (F (3,79) = 2.67, p \ .05). The magnitude of
this effect was modest (g
2
= .09). The Spiritual Meditation
group reported a greater increase in daily spiritual experi-
ences over the course of the study than the other groups.
Those in the Spiritual Meditation group had a significantly
greater increase in the number of daily spiritual experi-
ences than those in the Internal Secular Meditation
(p \ .05; g
2
= .10), and Relaxation (p \ .01; g
2
= .15)
groups and a marginally greater increase than those in the
External Secular Meditation (p \ .10; g
2
= .08) group.
Exploratory mediation analyses
Mediation analyses did not reveal any psychological vari-
ables that mediated the relationship between the post-
intervention spirituality variables and the outcome vari-
ables of pain tolerance and headache frequency.
Discussion
Despite advances in prophylactic, post-onset, and analgesic
migraine treatment, many migraineurs are still left without
adequate pain management. Migraineurs experience severe
headache pain that negatively impacts their mood, their
quality of life, their self-identity, their relationships and
their ability to work. In the present study, we tested the
relative efficacy of a spiritual form of meditation on
headache frequency, pain tolerance, mood, anxiety, quality
of life, and spiritual variables among migraineurs. While
previous studies have observed consistently positive mental
and physical health outcomes among practitioners of
meditation (Grossman et al. 2004), few have explored the
differences between spiritual and secular forms of medi-
tation. And, to the best of our knowledge, no published
studies have explored how adding a spiritual component to
a meditation practice may increase pain tolerance and re-
duce headache frequency among migraineurs.
Pain and spiritual meditation
The study’s findings supported most of the hypotheses. Not
only did migraineurs who practiced spiritual meditation
report a greater reduction in the number of headaches they
experienced, they displayed more pain tolerance. Similar to
others who have explored the effects of spiritual practices
on pain, the practice of spiritual meditation in this study did
not alter people’s sensitivity to pain (based on ratings of
pain severity), but it did alter how well they tolerated those
pain levels (Keefe et al. 2001; Wachholtz and Pargament
2005; Wachholtz et al. 2007).
These findings suggest that spiritual meditation may
have a two-fold benefit for migraineurs. First, with fewer
headaches, migraineurs experience less pain during their
daily lives. As a result, they may encounter fewer social
and personal consequences that accompany frequently
occurring headache pain (Bigal et al. 2001) as well as
reducing the potentially negative side effects that accom-
pany migraine medication. Second, improved pain toler-
ance suggests that when participants do experience pain,
such as migraine headaches, they may be better able to
continue with their daily personal, work, and family
activities less impeded by pain. The spiritual meditation
technique is an eminently portable skill that requires no
special equipment or financial commitment yet appears to
yield notable benefits to those with frequent migraine
headaches.
Mental health and spiritual meditation
Regular practice of spiritual meditation in this study cre-
ated significant decreases in negative mood among its
practitioners. Spiritual meditators reported a larger de-
crease in negative affect than those in any of the non-
spiritual technique groups. Though previous research has
shown that general forms of meditation can be effective in
improving mental health (Grossman et al. 2004), the
spiritual component appears to have a unique additive
effect that enhances the ability of meditation to decrease
negative affect and anxiety. It is not unusual for practi-
J Behav Med
123
tioners of meditation to report a general reduction in neg-
ative mood and trait anxiety (Wachholtz and Pargament
2005). However, the unique finding in the present study is
that the addition of an explicitly spiritual component
enhanced this effect compared to migraineurs using non-
spiritual techniques.
Perceived self-efficacy to control health outcomes, such
as the onset and duration of headache pain, should also be a
consideration when treating medically compromised indi-
viduals. The ability to feel in control of one’s pain is
related to less pain-driven negative emotion and more
positive mood (French et al. 2000; Keefe et al. 2001). One
of the key findings of the present study is that after only
one month, spiritual meditation participants reported that
they were better able to control their headache status. By
providing migraineurs with a powerful tool in the form of
spiritual meditation, migraineurs felt they have more con-
trol over their headaches.
Anecdotally, participants in the study indicated that
migraine headaches interfered with their lives by con-
suming valuable time intended for family, friends, work, or
leisure. With an initial average of 12 migraine headaches a
month among the study population, headache pain created
severe intrusions on their daily lives. Reducing these
intrusions should enhance quality of life. While not sta-
tistically significant in the current study, after practicing for
one month, those practicing spiritual meditation showed a
trend toward improvement on the Migraine Specific
Quality of Life. Nonetheless, because the spiritual medi-
tation group reported improvements in other areas that
contribute to quality of life (e.g. fewer headaches, im-
proved headache efficacy, decreased anxiety, less negative
mood, better tolerance of pain), it is likely that this group
did experience improved quality of life as measured by
these indices.
As a whole the findings speak to a fundamental
improvement in emotional health and improved feelings of
control following the use of spiritual meditation that was
not replicated with non-spiritual techniques.
Spiritual health and spiritual meditation
The positive benefits of spiritual meditation appear to reach
beyond the physical and mental health domain, into the
spiritual health domain (Wachholtz et al. 2007). Spiritual
meditators reported significant increases in their number of
daily spiritual experiences. As a result of the spiritual
meditation, meditators appeared to view the world through
more of a spiritual lens and experience a greater sense of
connectedness with the sacred on a daily basis.
The spiritual meditation group also reported the greatest
improvements in their existential spiritual well being. The
concept of existential well-being relates to experiencing a
sense of meaning and purpose in one’s life. Spiritual
meditation appears to enhance these feelings. Spiritual
meditation may provide people with the time and mental
space outside of their day-to-day routine to recognize
important aspects of their lives that they might otherwise
take for granted, leading to a greater sense of meaning and/
or self-purpose. Moreover, the positive valence of the
spiritual meditation phrase may enhance these feelings by
focusing meditators on positive aspects of their spiritual
lives.
The lack of effect for religious well being, and conse-
quently spiritual well being which is comprised of the
Religious and Existential Well Being subscales, is some-
what surprising given that this subscale is focused specif-
ically on interactions with a theistic being (e.g. God).
Despite having a theistically-directed meditative phrase,
perhaps participants’ did not identify their meditative
technique as religious like they would if they were engaged
in more traditional religious activity, such as prayer.
However, puzzling as this is, the lack of findings on this
subscale addresses another potential criticism of the study
for it suggests participants did not simply answer positively
to all spiritual questions due to social desirability or a pro-
spiritual bias. Rather they appeared to differentiate be-
tween their existential and religious well being during the
course of the intervention.
These were not the only spiritual health findings of
interest. Spiritual improvements were also found among
the secular meditation and relaxation groups in the area of
spiritual well-being. While the improvements were more
modest than those observed in the spiritual meditation
group, it raises the question as to why spiritual improve-
ments were found at all among practitioners of ostensibly
secular tasks.
As found in previous studies (Wachholtz and Pargament
2005), even secular meditation techniques may enhance the
individual’s spiritual well-being by setting aside daily time
to reduce the external noise of life and focus on quieting
the self. This raises the possibility that participants in
secular meditation groups were injecting spiritual aspects
into the technique. Yet another possibility is that people
were extracting a spiritual essence from the seemingly
secular techniques.
Historically, meditation has been embedded in a larger
spiritual matrix. These findings suggest that it may be
impossible to disconnect meditative practices fully from
this larger context. Thus, the distinction between ‘‘secular’’
and ‘‘spiritual’’ meditation may be overdrawn. Harris et al.
(1999) ask a number of intriguing questions that may need
to be addressed to adequately respond to these observa-
tions, ‘‘Are the spiritual or religious components of various
meditative practices, in essence, ‘delivery systems’ for the
actual mechanism of change, that is the relaxation re-
J Behav Med
123
sponse? Or do the spiritual or religious components, when
present, contribute to observed effects of meditative prac-
tice in a more integral or facilitative way, allowing the
relaxation response to work in a way that otherwise could
not or would not happen? Or do the spiritual and religious
components act as an addition and separate ‘active ingre-
dient’?’’ (Harris et al. 1999, 419). These possibilities could
be pursued in future studies through daily diaries that allow
narrative space for participants to explore their thoughts
and feelings as they experience both spiritual and secular
meditative processes.
Implications
The findings of this study have important practical impli-
cations for those working with chronic or acute pain pa-
tients. Since spiritual meditation was related to improved
mental health variables, improved pain tolerance, and im-
proved spiritual health variables, other individuals strug-
gling with painful conditions may benefit from the use of a
spiritual meditation technique. Health practitioners who
work with clinical pain patients have varying levels of
comfort in discussing religious or spiritual issues with their
patients. However, the current study suggests that by
encouraging their patients to integrate the patient’s spiritual
resources into treatment, practitioners may help their pa-
tients experience better mental health, and improved pain
tolerance and, perhaps in turn, reduce patients’ reliance on
medications (Pargament 2007).
Limitations and future directions
While this study contributed to an understanding of how
different forms of meditation can affect migraineurs, there
were limitations. The participant population consisted lar-
gely of undergraduate students, which limited the study’s
generalizability. The participants did report experiencing
repeated pain through a high number of monthly migraine
headaches. Nevertheless, future studies should expand the
demographic variability in the participant populations by
recruiting migraineurs from pain clinics or the general
population. Gathering participants from pain clinics would
also address another limitation of the study; a pain spe-
cialist did not verify participants’ report of a migraine
headache diagnosis. Instead, the Migraine ID Screener and
a high number of reported monthly headaches with
migraine characteristics were used to identify potential
participants. It should be noted that despite its brevity, the
Migraine ID screener has been shown to be a valid and
reliable diagnostic tool for migraine headaches; however, it
was developed for use in a primary care setting, not for an
undergraduate population which may be a limitation in its
use with the current study.
Contact between the participants and the experimenter
was intentionally held to a minimum in order to maintain a
high level of internal validity. However, this minimal
participant contact might also be a limitation. Future
studies could integrate the meditation protocol from this
study with a combination of therapeutic techniques and
weekly therapist contact to further enhance the efficacy of
the spiritual meditation technique.
The study contains a large proportion of women (90%).
However, women comprise 80% of migraine headache
sufferers (Lipton et al. 2002). Therefore, while gender is a
factor that should be noted, the gender differences are not
dramatically different from the identified patient popula-
tion.
Finally, the present study was limited by lack of follow-
up data after the completion of the study. Even though the
current study showed promising results after only a month
of spiritual meditation practice, it leaves open the question
of whether these benefits would be sustained over the long-
term. Future studies should examine the impact of contin-
ued meditation on physical, emotional, and spiritual out-
comes during long-term follow-up. Such a study would also
be enhanced by controlling for the effects of social desir-
ability and possibly including a measure on mindfulness.
Yet another exciting potential future direction for this
line of research involves a project with a larger participant
population and qualitative analyses of participant writings
in their daily diaries. This would provide the opportunity to
better understand participants’ thoughts and feelings during
their daily meditation practices. It would also allow the
researchers to develop a richer understanding of the
developmental process that participants go through as they
learn a new meditation/relaxation technique. Further,
researchers could identify how participants in the secular
meditation groups integrated spiritual themes into their
meditation practice. Additionally, a larger subject pool
would allow for more complex path analyses that would
help solidify our understanding of the relationship between
spiritual meditation, anxiety, mood, self-efficacy, and
quality of life and their connection to migraine headaches.
Future research could also explore the explanatory
pathways that lead to the greater mental, physical, and
spiritual health benefits found in those who practice spiri-
tual meditation (Wachholtz et al. 2007). These potential
mediating factors include improved mood, decreased anx-
iety, increased self-efficacy, distraction from bodily pain,
and/or increased spiritual emotions and support. The cur-
rent study did not find any mediating effects, however
larger studies with greater power may yield different
results. Nevertheless, it should be noted that it is also
possible that spiritual meditation has distinctive effects on
outcomes that cannot be fully explained by these psycho-
logical and social factors (Pargament et al. 2005).
J Behav Med
123
Conclusions
The explicit inclusion of spirituality into a meditation task
appears to add to the efficacy of this technique among those
with migraine pain. Individuals with migraine headaches
experience a great deal of pain and pain-related stress as a
result of their headaches. This pain and stress often results
in functional disability leading to lost time for work,
family, social, or other activities. The present study sug-
gested that spiritual meditation has unique properties that
mitigate some of the negative impact of migraines on
people’s lives. Despite the seemingly minor alteration of
the meditation technique used in the study, the addition of
an explicitly spiritual component produced profound ef-
fects. Spiritual meditation was shown to decrease negative
mood, decrease anxiety, increase feeling of spirituality, and
increase feelings of self-efficacy in coping with headache
pain. Spiritual meditators also displayed an increased pain
tolerance and fewer headaches than other participants in
the study. Without the addition of spirituality to the
relaxation practice, the benefits of meditation were more
modest. Thus, the information gained from the present
study suggests that the combination of spirituality and
meditation in the daily practice of a spiritual meditation
technique may enhance psychological, physical, and
spiritual health in migraineurs. Additional studies are
needed to determine whether spiritual meditation holds
similar implications for individuals experiencing other
forms of chronic or acute pain.
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