An Examination of the Moderators to the Effect of a Brief Mindfulness Intervention for Acute Pain

Mindfulness interventions are becoming used more often in numerous therapy protocols for people suffering from mental illness as well as physical stressors. The current study aims to assess the effectiveness of a brief (15 minute) mindfulness intervention, and its effect on how tolerant participants can become of a cold-pressor task. We aim to look at not only the effectiveness of the treatment itself, but also possible moderators to the effectiveness of said treatment. Two moderators that will be analyzed are general levels of distress intolerance and emotion regulation skills. Our hypothesis firstly will analyze whether or not brief mindfulness interventions can be effective for the participants completing the study. Our second hypothesis is whether or not differing levels of distress intolerance and emotion regulation skills will have an effect on the cold-pressor times. Results indicated that although there was not an effect of mindfulness conditions on the cold-pressor times, emotion regulation skills linked with suppression did however interact with times themselves