Mindfulness was something I first came across over ten years ago when I began to learn meditation. It has now become popular in the UK with courses and talks being given in various locations. Interestingly mindfulness is now being researched for health benefits to the body, mainly via stress reduction.  Since pain and stress are features of lupus I thought I would write about a recent study looking into mindfulness based stress reduction programs for chronic pain.     A recent study (1) has found that Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programs may be as effective as multidisciplinary pain intervention (MPI) programmes for individuals with chronic pain. In this study Wong 2011 compared the clinical effectiveness of an 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program (a structured form of meditation) with a MPI program in terms of pain intensity, pain-related distress, quality of life, and mood in over 90 patients with chronic pain (that had lasted for at least 3 months). Participants were randomly allocated to either the MBSR program (51 participants) or a MPI program (48 participants). The study used validated versions of self-reported questionnaires measuring pain, mood symptoms, and health-related quality of life. Patients in both the groups were comparable with regard to demographical characteristics, pain intensity, mood symptoms, and health-related quality-of-life measures before intervention. In both the groups, patients who completed the trial demonstrated statistically significant small improvements in pain intensity and pain-related distress. “This randomized, clinical trial showed that both MBSR and MPI programs reduced pain intensity and….