Choric Musculoskeletal pain patients suffer from emotional distress such as depression and anxiety and also experience much more discomfort in their lives. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of a Mindfulness meditation group therapy and Mindfulness meditation group therapy added Compassion meditation on pain, quality of life, and psychological features in Chronic Musculoskeletal pain patients.

20 participants received 7 weekly sessions in mindfulness meditation training program, which take about 90 minutes each. Only Compassion Meditation group received 20 minutes added program. Measures included Visual Analog Scale (VAS), Quality of life (WHOQOL-BRIF), Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Y (STAI-Y), Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-16 (AAQ-16), Experiences Questionnaire (EQ), Life Satisfaction Expectancy scales (LSES). All the variables were measured at three time points: pre, post, and follow up implementation.

The t-test results of the participants before and after the Mindfulness Meditation group showed statistically significant improvement in their Pain (t=2.64, p<.05), Depression (t=5.579, p<.05), and State Anxiety (t=2.223, p<.05), but not in another positive psychological features. Added Compassion Meditation group showed statistically significant improvement all of measures (Pain: t=3.180, p<.01, Quality of life: t=4.781, p<.01, Depression: t=2.208, p<.01, State Anxiety: t=3.838, p<.01, Trait Anxiety: t=3.208, p<.01, Acceptance: t=−2.635, p<.05, Experience: t=−3.041, p<.01, Life satisfaction: t=−2.23, p<.05). The follow-up implementation showed the persistence of beneficial changes.

Added compassion meditation is more effective than mindfulness meditation for chronic musculoskeletal pain. There are greater benefits for alleviating pain, improving quality of life and other psychological features that can be gained from performing added compassion meditation rather than doing mindfulness meditation solely.

The psychological health of a pregnant woman and a healthy fetal relationship are important for perinatal adaptation. This study aimed to develop loving-kindness and compassion meditation (LKCM), which are known to be effective for improving interpersonal relationships and to verify its effectiveness in order to promote maternal-fetal attachment (MFA).

We developed an LKCM curriculum and training program for pregnant women and assessed its efficacy for improving MFA, positive emotion, mindfulness, and positive fetal movement experience (PFME) through a pre-intervention, post-intervention, and one-month follow-up comparison with a yoga comparison group and an untreated control group.

The LKCM experimental group showed significantly improved MFA, positive emotion, mindfulness, and PFME than did the other groups at post-intervention and follow-up.

Overall, this study confirmed that LKCM interventions can promote MFA, positive emotions, mindfulness, and PFME. Thus, it is meaningful that this study served to foster beneficial psychological resources compared to numerous studies aiming to improve deficits experienced by pregnant women. Additionally, this is the first full-scale study to develop a program based on specialized LKCM to enhance MFA during pregnancy and verify its efficacy.