Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
June 30, 2014
Julieta Galante, Ignacio Galante, Marie‐jet Bekkers et al.
379 citations
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 22 randomized controlled trials found that kindness-based meditation (loving-kindness and compassion meditation) moderately reduces self-reported depression and increases mindfulness, compassion, and self-compassion compared to passive control groups. Positive emotions also increased compared to progressive relaxation. However, results were inconclusive against active controls, and the evidence suffered from low to moderate methodological quality and imprecision due to small studies. Some people may initially find the practice challenging. Overall, kindness-based meditation shows benefits for well-being and social interaction, but larger, well-conducted trials are needed.
Applied Psychology Health and Well-Being
June 23, 2016
Julieta Galante, Marie‐jet Bekkers, Clive Mitchell et al.
55 citations
An online loving-kindness meditation course and a light physical exercise course both improved well-being, with no significant difference between them. Participants in the meditation course were less anxious than those in the exercise course. They were also more likely to donate money to charity, though this result was not statistically significant. The meditation course was emotionally intense, generating deep reflections and increased feelings of connectedness, but was difficult for some to process. The exercise course led to gentle increases in relaxation and a sense of achievement. Attrition was high at 82%.
Scientific Reports
July 1, 2024
Jonathan N. Davies, Anna Faschinger, Julieta Galante et al.
45 citations
Between 2002 and 2022, the use of meditation, yoga, and guided imagery or progressive relaxation among US adults rose significantly. By 2022, 18.3% (60.53 million) practiced meditation, 16.8% (55.78 million) practiced yoga, and 6.7% (22.22 million) used guided imagery or progressive relaxation. Growth was widespread across sociodemographic groups, but people of 'Other' race (54% Indigenous Americans) and those with moderate psychological distress were overrepresented across all practices. Individuals with severe distress were more likely to use meditation and guided imagery or progressive relaxation. Meditation use accelerated among adults aged 65 and older, those not accessing mental health care, and less educated groups, suggesting unmet health needs.
Mindfulness
June 1, 2024
Nicholas T. Dam, Jessica Targett, Alex Burger et al.
9 citations
A new questionnaire, the Inventory of Meditation Experiences (IME), captures a wide range of meditation-related experiences, from pleasant to unpleasant and mild to intense. Developed with data from 886 US meditators, the final 30-item scale has three factors and shows good statistical fit. The IME correlates as expected with measures of adverse effects, meditation habits, and mental health symptoms. The tool allows researchers to assess both the intensity and subjective valence of experiences separately or together, offering a more nuanced way to study the full spectrum of meditation-related psychological states.
BMC psychology
October 21, 2024
Patrick Pui Kin Kor, Kee Lee Chou, Steven H Zarit et al.
8 citations
A single-session mindfulness-based intervention combined with app-based follow-up may reduce stress in family caregivers of people with dementia. This trial will test the effectiveness and feasibility of a 90-minute group session with mindfulness practices and psychoeducation, plus an 8-week self-practice toolkit and online sharing, compared to an education session on dementia care. The study is a single-blinded randomized controlled trial with assessments at baseline, 8 weeks, and 6 months. Primary outcome is perceived caregiving stress; secondary outcomes include depressive symptoms, positive aspects of caregiving, dyadic relationship, trait mindfulness, and neuropsychiatric symptoms of care recipients. Feasibility outcomes include eligibility, enrollment, attendance, adherence, and retention.
Mindfulness
March 1, 2025
Julieta Galante, Nicholas T. Van Dam
6 citations
The authors critique a proposal to broaden the definition of mindfulness to include diverse contemplative practices, arguing instead to move the term away from the spotlight and study contemplative practices with more precise academic terms. They contend that comparing mindfulness and public health is a category error: mindfulness is a set of practices, while public health is a field defined by application. Reframing mindfulness as an aid to public health, rather than a replacement, clarifies its potential as an individual-level component of multi-level interventions addressing social determinants of health. Realizing this requires collaborative partnerships between mindfulness developers and independent public health researchers, using participatory methods to assess community needs.
PloS one
January 1, 2024
Erik Jönhagen, Tim Wood, Maria Niemi et al.
5 citations
Mindfulness practice can produce intense experiences that for some individuals resemble psychotic-like experiences, according to a qualitative study of 13 mindfulness teacher trainees. Over four months, participants submitted fortnightly meditation reports. Most practitioners frequently described intense experiences during meditation, and in some cases these experiences were similar to psychotic-like experiences. The findings suggest that adverse effects, including intense and potentially psychosis-like experiences, can occur as a natural part of mindfulness practice, raising concerns for both clinical and non-clinical settings.
Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress
December 1, 2025
Maris Vainre, Tim Dalgleish, Tia Bendriss-Otiko et al.
2 citations
Mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs) modestly improve task performance—the quantity and quality of completed assigned work—immediately after the intervention compared with doing nothing, but not compared with other active activities. The meta-analysis of 99 studies with 16,054 participants also found benefits for adaptive and contextual performance, and effects may persist for months. However, confidence in these results is very low due to limitations in the evidence. Employers and universities subsidize MBPs to boost work performance despite previously unclear evidence.
BMC psychology
July 1, 2025
Patrick Pui Kin Kor, Kee Lee Chou, Alex Pak Lik Tsang et al.
2 citations
A new closed-loop mindfulness program, delivered partly through a mobile app called Mind & Care, is being tested against a traditional mindfulness program and a brief education control in a randomized controlled trial with 189 family caregivers of people with dementia. The closed-loop program adapts practice durations based on the user's attentional capacity and provides quantifiable feedback to support sustained practice. The primary outcome is perceived stress; secondary outcomes include depressive symptoms, peace of mind, caregiving burden, relationship quality, dispositional mindfulness, heart rate variability, and the care recipient's neuropsychiatric symptoms.
BMC complementary medicine and therapies
December 4, 2025
Jonathan N Davies, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
1 citation
About 41.5% of Australian and 35.7% of New Zealand adults have ever used meditation, with 32.8% and 24.9% using it in the past year. Younger age and higher education consistently predicted past-year use in both countries. In Australia, additional predictors included female gender, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander ancestry, unmet mental health care needs, and receipt of complementary care. In New Zealand, identifying as LGBTQIA+ was a strong positive predictor, while not receiving medical care was linked to lower odds. Over 21.7% of Australian and 17.6% of New Zealand meditators reported a meditation-related adverse effect.
BMJ mental health
February 28, 2024
Maris Vainre, Tim Dalgleish, Peter Watson et al.
1 citation
A randomized trial tested whether a 4-week, self-guided, online mindfulness-based programme could improve work performance compared with a light physical exercise programme among 241 employees from eight employers. Both interventions were highly acceptable, and most participants started the course. The mindfulness programme offered negligible benefits for work performance at both post-intervention and 12-week follow-up. Both interventions improved mental health outcomes, but differences between them were small. The trial was feasible, but results provide little support for a later-phase trial comparing the two approaches, suggesting mindfulness programmes are unlikely to improve work performance beyond light physical exercise.
JMIR mHealth and uHealth
June 8, 2026
Julia Adams, Jonathan Davies, Prai Wattanatakulchat et al.
Meditation app use is generally low: half of users engage for 16 minutes or less in the first month after download, and fewer than 20% continue past 14 days. Intended use far exceeds actual use. Higher engagement is associated with expectation match, expectations for anxiety and attention, conscientiousness, satisfaction with life, and well-being, while neuroticism, perceived stress, psychological distress, and lower quality of life are linked to lower engagement. Readiness to change uniquely predicts higher engagement. Acute stress motivates use, but chronic stress disrupts it. Engagement is best when experiences match expectations and users are prepared to change.
Scientific Reports
May 19, 2026
Karin Matko, Cate Bailey, Julieta Galante et al.
Seventy percent of adults in Australia and New Zealand engaged in contemplative practices such as meditation, yoga, or breathing techniques in the past year, most commonly meditation (31%). Practitioners reported higher psychological distress and greater use of mental healthcare than non-practitioners. After adjusting for sociodemographic differences, the association with distress disappeared for yoga and relaxation practitioners but remained for breathing techniques, which were linked to increased distress in all models. Among those with unmet healthcare needs, meditators and relaxation practitioners reported less distress than non-practitioners with unmet needs. The findings suggest contemplative practices may serve as complements to mental healthcare, but their complex relationships with mental health require further study.
Mindfulness
May 19, 2026
Tim Wood, Merle Kock, Nicholas T van Dam et al.
Intense meditation-related experiences (IMREs) can suddenly alter a person's sense of self, worldview, and emotions, but their meaning often shifts as meditators reflect and interpret them over time within their social and cultural context. Through in-depth interviews with 13 participants, four themes emerged: watching the self and world transform; emotional explosions leading to insight; deciding whether to share the experience or remain silent; and developing new perspectives and agency. Most participants found that the meaning of their IMREs became clearer through conversation with others, using concepts from science and meditation traditions. These experiences were transformative, offering new ways of perceiving and acting in the world.
Scientific reports
May 8, 2026
Erola Pons, Julieta Galante, Nicholas T Van Dam et al.
Depersonalization and derealization (DPDR) involve feeling detached from one's body, thoughts, or emotions, typically triggered by trauma, stress, or drugs and causing high distress. Similar experiences arise during meditation, where they are often described as positive and meaningful. This cross-sectional study compared DPDR-like states triggered by meditation (60 participants) versus other triggers (61 participants). The meditation-triggered group rated their experiences as substantially more positive, though most participants in both groups described them as mixed. Meditation-induced DPDR occurred across types and experience levels. These experiences are phenomenologically similar but more welcome, pleasant, and spiritually meaningful than those from trauma or cannabis, though distress is not uncommon. Contemplative approaches may inform clinical support for DPDR, and guidance within meditation settings is needed.
Mindfulness
February 25, 2026
Cate Bailey, Nicholas T. van Dam, Jonathan N Davies et al.
A nationally representative Australian survey compared quality of life, health service use, and costs among meditators, other contemplative practitioners, and non-practitioners. Unadjusted quality-of-life scores were higher for non-practitioners, and this difference persisted after accounting for demographics but disappeared when mental health service use was included. Unmet mental-health service need was highest among meditators (13.9%) versus non-practitioners (2.4%). The average annual cost of contemplative practice was $1,281 per person. The findings provide preliminary data for future economic evaluations of contemplative practices.
Journal of medical Internet research
February 2, 2026
Julia Adams, Jonathan Davies, Prai Wattanatakulchat et al.
Most people who download meditation apps use them very little. In a survey of 536 recent users across five English-speaking countries, those who were more educated, more open to new experiences, and who held stronger beliefs that meditation apps would help them were more likely to engage regularly. Readiness to change, expectations for sleep and thriving, and perceived app quality and appeal were also linked to greater use. Age and higher education were among the strongest predictors of engagement. The findings suggest that user characteristics and attitudes toward the app matter more than mental health symptoms for determining how much someone uses a meditation app.
Pedagogy Culture and Society
December 8, 2025
Christopher T. Mccaw, Haisu Sun, Julieta Galante et al.
A model for applying contemplative pedagogy in higher education emphasizes rich contextualization and interdisciplinarity. The framework places embodied contemplative practices within concentric layers of context, drawing from multiple disciplinary perspectives. It addresses challenges educators face in contemporary universities, using cosmopolitanism to navigate epistemological, cultural, and practical diversity. The course 'The Art and Science of Meditation' illustrates this approach.
Current Psychology
December 1, 2025
Nandini Karunamuni, Tim Wood, Julieta Galante
The mind-brain relationship problem is a key philosophical issue with significant implications for mental health research and practice. This article explores the nature of subjective first-person experiences, which help define the mind, and contrasts them with third-person scientific understandings of the brain. The first-person and third-person perspectives are presented as two distinct but equally valid epistemological frameworks: first-person insights cultivate self-knowledge and wisdom, while third-person analysis illuminates the workings of the world. The mind is described as a dynamic system of constantly changing sensory encounters and mental processes involving past, present, and future, to be regarded as a distinct variable. The article advocates for a broader, more inclusive approach to mental health research and treatment without denying neurobiological correlates of mental states.
JMIR research protocols
July 29, 2025
Nicholas Bowles, Alexander Burger, Jonathan N Davies et al.
A proposed randomized controlled trial will test whether longer daily mindfulness meditation sessions produce greater improvements in well-being. Healthy adults aged 18–65 will be assigned to 4-week online courses with 10, 20, or 30 minutes of daily practice, or a 4-minute control condition. The primary outcome is psychological well-being, measured at baseline, midintervention, postintervention, and one-month follow-up. The trial aims to enroll at least 688 participants; as of end of 2024, 70 eligible participants were enrolled. Results are expected by March 2026.
June 2, 2025
Maris Vainre, Lisa Doan, Cecilie S. Traberg et al.
preprint
Misinformation about mindfulness is becoming more common, leading people to ineffective or harmful programs. Inoculation theory suggests that resistance to misinformation can be built by inducing a sense of threat and offering pre-emptive refutations of deceptive techniques. Two experiments evaluated video-based inoculation interventions targeting inflated benefit claims and emotional manipulation in mindfulness marketing. In Study 1 (554 participants), those who viewed an inoculation video rated a misleading mindfulness program advertisement as significantly less reliable than controls. In Study 2 (590 participants), inoculated participants were less likely to say they would participate in a program advertised with misinformation. Inoculation appears promising for building resistance to mindfulness misinformation.