Mindfulness intervention effect on endometriosis-related pain dimensions and its mediator role on stress and vitality: a path analysis approach

Endometriosis-related pain is supposedly mainly responsible for generating psychological stress and deteriorating the quality of life. However, the interaction between these factors has not been investigated, considering its multidimensional nature and through the path of effects of psychosocial approaches. The present study aims to investigate the effect of a brief mindfulness-based intervention (bMBI) on pain dimensions and its mediator role on psychological stress and QoL-Vitality improvement. A secondary analysis of a pilot randomized controlled trial using a series of parallel and serial mediators was carried out. The results showed that bMBI improves the sensory (B = −6.09 [−9.81, −2.52], β = −0.42) and affective (B = −3.40 [−5.02, −1.80], β = −0.47) pain. The bMBI effect on psychological stress reduction was mediated by these changes in sensory (B = −2.81 [−6.06, −0.41], β = −0.21) and affective (B = −1.97 [−5.07, −0.17], β = −0.15) pain. Serial sensory pain and psychological stress reduction (B = 2.27 [0.11, 5.81], β = −0.09) mediated the bMBI effect on quality of life vitality. Meditation training promotes additional improvement in affective and sensory pain characteristics through which psychological stress is reduced. The sensory pain dimension must be positively impacted in combination with psychological stress for the bMBI improves women’s vitality. Adding a psychosocial intervention like meditation training to the standard treatment plan may be required for some women to achieve the needed changes to restore well-being. Similar content being viewed by others Notes The primary analysis concerns the published RCT, which investigated the bMBI effect on endometriosis-related pain (unidimensionally), psychological stress, and domains of QoL. The current manuscript’s secondary analysis uses published data on psychological stress and QoL-Vitality and unpublished data on the bMBI effect on multiple pain dimensions.

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We thank Sophia Duarte for carefully proofreading the manuscript. Data sharing a. Will individual participant data be available (including data dictionaries)? Yes, but not the data dictionaries. b. What data in particular will be shared? Individual participant data that underlie the results reported in this article, after deidentification (text, tables, and figures). c. What other documents will be available (e.g., study protocol and statistical analysis plan)? Analytic code. d. When will data be available (start and end dates)? Immediately following publication. No end date. e. How will data be shared (including with whom, for what types of analyses, and by what mechanism)? Data are available indefinitely at Link to be included for anyone who wishes to access the data. Author information Authors and Affiliations Corresponding author Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials (U1111-1233-4802). Supplementary information Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Moreira, M.d., Gamboa, O.L. & Oliveira, M.A.P. Mindfulness intervention effect on endometriosis-related pain dimensions and its mediator role on stress and vitality: a path analysis approach. Arch Womens Ment Health 27, 45–55 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01381-6 Received: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-023-01381-6