Kin 2G03 - Pain Assignment

Kinesiology 2G03
Unit 4 Assignment: Pain
Mohammad Tahir – 400254677
McMaster University
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Heisz
April 23, 2021

Option B: 2 Page Written Summary
(on the next 2 pages below)
Chosen Article:
la Cour, P., & Petersen, M. (2015, April 2). Effects of Mindfulness Meditation on Chronic
Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. OUP Academic.
https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/16/4/641/2460516.
Hey Aunt Janet, I am truly happy you reached out to me for advice on your
chronic back pain issues as I have learned quite a bit from school which may be of
significance to you. Firstly, I understand that you are undergoing nociceptive pain, which
is pain arising from injury/tissue damage, that may have evolved into neuropathic pain
(or pain arising from a damaged nervous system). It seems like your horrific injury at
work has resulted in this chronic back pain but in doing so, it may very well have injured
your spinal cord/nerves too resulting in allodynia. Allodynia is a condition where one has
a noxious response to an innocuous stimulus, which can explain how even the slightest
of touches make your pain flare up. There are separate nerves that carry touch and pain
information up to your brain, both of which pass through the spine’s dorsal horn, and a
damaged spinal cord like yours may suffer from ‘neuroplasticity’ which is when the
touch nerve fibers start sending their signals/information up to the wrong, pain pathway.
This leads to the brain misunderstanding those touch signals for pain signals and can
explain why you feel pain from the slightest of touches adding to the agony of pain.
Moreover, chronic pain is thought to be neuro-degenerative and decreases the grey
matter density in one’s pre-frontal cortex (PFC) which is the part of the brain responsible
for logical/rational thought and decision-making. In fact, a study by Van Apkarian et al.
in 2004 looked at this phenomenon by asking chronic pain patients to perform the ‘Iowa
Gambling Task’ and assessed their decision-making capabilities. The researchers gave
subjects 4 decks of cards to choose from, where the first 2 decks presented an initial
high cash reward but at a disadvantaged penalty in the long run while the last 2 decks
of cards presented them with a lower initial reward but at low penalty and in the long
run, would have been more advantageous to make profit. The results of this study found
that the chronic pain patients (with decreased grey matter in PFC) were more likely to
make poorer decisions and choose the high reward decks to end up losing money while
healthy individuals were able to see past that choosing the latter decks of cards and
made profit. I remember you saying that your impaired emotional/physical state as a
result of chronic back pain has led you to make silly mistakes when doing simple tasks
and I hope this goes some way in explaining why that happens. To help alleviate
chronic pain, I urge you to look into mindfulness meditation as treatment aside from any
pain medication you may already be taking. I investigated a study called “Effects of
Mindfulness Meditation on Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial” by Peter la
Cour et al. published in April 2015, which randomly placed 109 chronic pain patients
into either a standardized mindfulness meditation program (MBSR program group) or a
wait list control group (receiving treatment as usual). 43 of the 109 subjects were placed
into the MBSR mindfulness course over 2.5 years while the rest remained in the control
group and data about pain, physical function, mental function, pain acceptance and
health-related quality of life was obtained via various questionnaires before the
intervention, after the MBSR program, and at a 6-month follow-up. The results of this
study proved that both after the mindfulness program and the 6 months, the MSBR
group had lower levels of anxiety and depression with greater pain acceptance, greater
readiness to engage in activities despite pain, and better mental quality of life than the
control group. I believe that with meditation, you will find yourself feeling less pain, be
able to tolerate pain better, and leave you with a better state of mind allowing you to
take part in daily activities with your wife, finish those home repairs and help manage
your chronic back pain. I hope this helps and I wish you all the best in the future.

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Kinesiology 2G03

Unit 4 Assignment: Pain

Mohammad Tahir – 400254677

Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Heisz

April 23, 2021

(on the next 2 pages below)

Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial. OUP Academic.

Moreover, chronic pain is thought to be neuro-degenerative and decreases the grey

Mindfulness Meditation on Chronic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial” by Peter la

into either a standardized mindfulness meditation program (MBSR program group) or a

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