Effectiveness of Meditation-based Interventions on Health Problems Caused by COVID-19 Pandemic: Narrative Review.
International journal of yoga – January 01, 2023
Source: PubMed
Summary
Meditation-based interventions (MBIs) significantly alleviate mental and physical symptoms linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of seven studies revealed that MBIs reduced overall distress disorders—like depression, anxiety, and stress—by 20.5% to 68.8%. Additionally, insomnia saw moderate improvement rates ranging from 5.2% to 38.5%. However, effects on long COVID were variable, with symptom improvements fluctuating between 0.0% and 71.2%. These findings underscore the potential of MBIs in addressing prevalent health issues stemming from the pandemic.
Abstract
This article provides a quantitative review of the potential applications of meditation-based interventions (MBIs) in addressing the major health issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The review assesses the effectiveness of MBIs on five prevalent disorders during the pandemic, namely depression, anxiety, stress, insomnia, and long COVID. This is achieved by selecting and scrutinizing seven studies that involve various types of online randomized controlled trials and utilize control group outcomes for effectiveness evaluation. The findings reveal a significant impact of MBIs on overall distress disorder, encompassing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress, with effectiveness ranging from 20.5% to 68.8%. The interventions also show moderate effectiveness on insomnia disorder with improvements between 5.2% and 38.5%. However, the effectiveness on long COVID disorder presents a mixed picture, with improvements varying from 0.0% to 71.2% across 13 related symptoms or qualities examined. This review offers compelling evidence supporting the effectiveness of MBIs in alleviating these five prevalent disorders resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.