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In a recent bibliometric analysis of mindfulness research published over the past 55 years, I was found to be the most prolific author of mindfulness research in the world. While I’m truly honored and humbled by this achievement, the real meaning of this body of work goes beyond numbers and world records. My deepest aspiration is that the scientific discoveries I’ve made over the past 15 years will reduce suffering and advance human flourishing.

Are you a behavioral health clinician (social worker, psychologist, counselor, etc.) looking for a job centered on mindfulness? Here’s a full-time job opportunity delivering Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) to active duty military personnel undergoing knee replacement surgery for a new research study funded by the Department of Defense. I am the PI on the study, but the position is through the Geneva Foundation. If you are interested, please reach out to me (dr.eric.garland@gmail.com), or apply at the link below:

https://researchcareers-genevausa.icims.com/jobs/2838/licensed-clinical-social-worker/job

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) invites you to join us this spring for exciting lectures on the theme of “Novel Approaches at the Intersection of Mental Health and Pain.” These virtual talks, part of our Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series will take place on Tuesday, May 4, 2021, and Tuesday, June 8, 2021. The lectures, rescheduled from spring 2020, will be streamed live on NIH VideoCast.

May 4 Lecture Featuring Eric Garland, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.

On Tuesday, May 4 from noon to 1 p.m. ET, Eric Garland, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., will present “Healing the Opioid Crisis with Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE): Clinical Efficacy and Neurophysiological Mechanisms.” Dr. Garland is professor and associate dean for research at the University of Utah College of Social Work and director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development (C-MIIND).  

Dr. Garland notes that some of our most pressing “diseases of despair,” such as addiction and chronic pain, disrupt the brain’s capacity to experience healthy pleasure and extract meaning from naturally rewarding events and experiences. Prolonged opioid use, for example, in the context of chronic pain and distress can blunt positive emotions and compel opioid misuse as a way to hold on to the shrinking sense of well-being. Dr. Garland will describe development and testing of MORE, an integrative treatment strategy.

In anticipation of the lecture, the Blog Team asked Dr. Garland a couple of questions.

1) What are the building blocks of MORE? 

Dr. Garland: MORE unites complementary aspects of training in several skill areas:

• Mindfulness skills enhance self-awareness, alleviate pain, and strengthen self-control over automatic, addictive habits.
• Reappraisal skills facilitate reframing of adverse life events as a potential source of psychological growth.
• Savoring skills increase a healthy sense of pleasure, joy, and meaning in life and elicit experiences of self-transcendence—the sense of being connected to something greater than oneself. 

2) What are some of the insights from affective neuroscience that inform MORE? 

Dr. Garland: First, the brain’s reward system computes the relative value of competing rewards. As addiction progresses, the brain’s reward system changes to become more sensitive to drug-related rewards and less sensitive to natural, healthy pleasures. MORE incorporates mindfulness, reappraisal, and savoring skills to reverse this process. A second fundamental insight is that the brain constructs the pain experience from bodily signals. In MORE, we teach patients to use mindfulness to view their chronic pain as harmless sensory information, not a threat to bodily well-being. This approach reduces the emotional suffering associated with pain, which in turn can decrease the severity of pain.

New research shows that a specific mind-body therapy, Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE), increases the brain’s response to natural, healthy rewards while also decreasing the brain’s response to opioid-related cues.

The study, published today in the journal Science Advances, examined data from four experiments involving 135 adults who took opioids daily for chronic pain. The study participants were randomly assigned to two groups where they participated in eight weeks of MORE or eight weeks of a therapist-led support group. At the beginning and end of the study period, researchers collected electroencephalogram (EEG) data, which measures brain function through electrical activity at the scalp.

The results showed that over the course of the study, the brains of the study participants in the MORE group became significantly less reactive to cues related to their opioid medications, while also becoming significantly more responsive when participants used mindfulness to savor natural pleasure.

“Previous research shows that prolonged use of opioids makes our brains more sensitive to pain and less receptive to the joy one might normally experience from natural rewards, like spending time with loved ones or appreciating a beautiful sunset,” explained Eric Garland, associate dean for research at the University of Utah College of Social Work and lead author of the study. “This blunted ability to experience natural positive feelings leads people to take higher and higher doses of opioids just to feel okay, and ultimately propels a downward spiral of opioid dependence and misuse. Because of this downward spiral, scholars are increasingly referring to chronic pain and opioid misuse as ‘diseases of despair.’” 

“The results of this study show that MORE can actually reverse that devastating trajectory,” said Garland.

In addition to these objective EEG findings, participants in MORE also reported feeling enhanced joy and more meaning in life, results which Garland detailed in a paper published earlier this month in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. They also reported experiencing significantly less pain and greater positive psychological health (positive emotions, the ability to savor natural pleasure and self-transcendence) than those in the support group. The study concluded that three months after treatment, MORE reduced risk of opioid misuse by increasing positive psychological health and decreasing pain. 

Garland developed MORE as an integrative mind-body therapy designed to promote positive psychological health while simultaneously addressing addiction, pain and stress. MORE teaches mental training techniques to help people to find meaning in the face of adversity while simultaneously alleviating physical and emotional pain by cultivating positive feelings and experiences.

“MORE teaches people to better notice, appreciate and amplify the good things in life, while also deriving meaning and value from difficult situations,” said Garland.

Taken together, Garland explains, these studies indicate that by changing brain function and promoting positive psychological health, MORE may increase happiness and an enhanced sense of meaningfulness in the face of adversity. These positive psychological effects, in turn, appear to reduce pain and prevent the misuse of opioids. Thus, enhancing joy and meaning in life through mindfulness may be an antidote to diseases of despair, Garland explains.

It is estimated that approximately 20-30 percent of U.S. adults experience chronic pain. Opioid painkillers are often prescribed to these patients, but a quarter of those who take these powerful drugs long-term end up misusing them. With opioids accounting for 63 percent of all drug overdose deaths in 2015, the widespread misuse of this class of drugs has been deemed a public health crisis. 

“Our nation’s opioid crisis kills more than 100 people a day,” said Garland. “So it is critical that we help develop new and effective ways to prevent opioid misuse. The data shows that MORE can play that key role.” 

Results from a research study on Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement have been covered as a research spotlight on the webpage of the National Institutes of Health – National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). This randomized controlled pilot study, funded by NCCIH, tested the effects of MORE among individuals receiving medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD). Participants received 112 random assessments delivered by smartphone over the course of 8 weeks of treatment with MORE or treatment as usual (TAU). Compared to TAU, participants in the MORE intervention reported a 50% reduction in the intensity of their opioid cravings, as well as significantly greater self-control over cravings. In addition, participants reported significant improvements in pain unpleasantness, stress, and positive emotions. Although participants in TAU received more than 6 hours of therapy per week, the effects of MORE were evident above and beyond that intensive degree of treatment, suggesting that MORE may be a useful adjunct to community-based MAT. The full study results were published in the flagship addictions journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.