The Association Between Mindfulness and Post-operative Pain: A Prospective Cohort Study of Gynecologic Oncology Patients Undergoing Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy.

To describe the association between pre-operative dispositional mindfulness (the personality trait of being mindful) and post-operative pain in gynecologic oncology patients undergoing minimally invasive hysterectomy.Prospective cohort study.A university affiliated teaching hospital.Gynecologic oncology patients (n=126) planning minimally invasive hysterectomy.Minimally invasive hysterectomy.Baseline mindfulness was assessed at the pre-operative visit using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). Post-operative pain and opioid usage were evaluated via chart review and surveys at 1-2 week and 4-6 week post-operative visits. Higher baseline mindfulness was correlated with lower post-operative pain as measured by both the average and highest numeric pain scores during the inpatient stay (r = -0.23, p = .020; r = -0.21, p = .034). At the initial post-operative visit, pain score was also inversely correlated with pre-operative mindfulness score (r = -0.26, p = .008). This relationship was not observed at the final post-operative visit (r = -0.08, p = .406). The association between higher pre-operative mindfulness and lower opioid usage was in the hypothesized direction (r = -0.18, p = .066), though did not reach statistical significance.Mindfulness was previously shown to be a promising intervention for chronic pain treatment. Our study demonstrates that higher pre-operative dispositional mindfulness is associated with more favorable post-operative pain outcomes, including lower pain scores, but not lower opioid consumption. This relationship provides an opportunity to target the modifiable personality characteristic of mindfulness, to improve post-operative pain for patients planning gynecologic surgery.