Preoperative Psychosocial Support for Postoperative Recovery and Health: Mechanistic Substudy

Mindfulness of Breath consisted of instruction in focused attention on the breath and metacognitive monitoring and acceptance of discursive thoughts, negative emotions, and pain.

Mindfulness of Pain consisted of instruction in how to (1) zoom in to deconstruct pain into its constituent physical sensations and precisely map each sensation's spatial location, (2) use mindful breathing to zoom out and broaden the field of attention to include previously neglected sensory elements (i.e., spaces within the body that were absent of sensation and pleasant sensations), and (3) shift attention from unpleasant sensations to neutral/pleasant sensations or experiences.

Cognitive-Behaviorally Based Pain Psychoeducation consisted of psychoeducation about the link between thoughts, emotions, and behavior and provided instruction in the use logic to dispute maladaptive thoughts about pain that might otherwise exacerbate pain and distress.