The Role of Opioidergic Systems in Breathing Based Analgesia

The proposed study will employ a graded analytical approach to compare mindfulness to
placebo-meditation and a slow-breathing exercise in response to double-blind intravenous
administration (IV) of naloxone/placebo-saline and noxious heat stimulation. The aim of this
study is to determine if slow-breathing induced analgesia is associated with the release of
endogenous opioids. The proposed study will disentangle the specific stage of cognitive
and/or respiration-based involvement (if any) of opioidergically mediated pain relief, a
critical step in identifying the specific analgesic mechanisms corresponding to mindfulness
based cognitive techniques.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Normal volunteers with no history of chronic pain problems

- Volunteers had no prior meditation experience

- Volunteers could be male and non-pregnant females.

- Volunteers of all ethnic backgrounds were included.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Female volunteers could not be pregnant.

- They could not be taking opioids or antidepressants.

- Subjects with a repeated history of syncope, loss of consciousness, light headedness,
nausea, dizziness, or vomiting in response to needles or blood could not participate
in the study.

- Subject could not be using exogenous opiates for the complete duration of the study.