The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
May 1, 2009
Alberto Chiesa, Alessandro Serretti
1,707 citations
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) reduces stress in healthy people, but its specific effects beyond other treatments remain unclear. A review and meta-analysis of ten mostly low-quality studies found that MBSR reduced stress and enhanced spirituality compared to doing nothing. When compared to structurally equivalent interventions, MBSR showed a possible specific effect, and it performed equally well as standard relaxation training at reducing stress. MBSR also reduced ruminative thinking and trait anxiety and increased empathy and self-compassion. The authors caution that limitations of the included studies and the lack of evidence for specific effects over other treatments highlight the need for further research.
Journal of Clinical Psychology
January 19, 2011
Alberto Chiesa, Peter Malinowski
456 citations
Mindfulness-based approaches are increasingly used to treat psychological, psychiatric, and physical problems, including ancient Buddhist meditations (Vipassana, Zen), modern group-based programs (mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy), and psychological interventions (dialectical behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy). This review examines their commonalities and differences in philosophical background, techniques, aims, outcomes, neurobiology, and psychological mechanisms. The interventions show large differences in how mindfulness is conceptualized and practiced. Whether these practices are considered unitary or distinct will likely influence future research directions.
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
May 1, 2009
Alberto Chiesa
83 citations
A review of Zen meditation research found that electroencephalographic studies show increased alpha and theta brain activity, especially in the frontal cortex, with theta activity linked to greater experience in practitioners. Zen meditation practice may protect against age-related cognitive decline and enhance antioxidant activity. Clinically, it reduces stress and blood pressure and benefits therapists and musicians. However, current evidence is scarce, necessitating more rigorous investigations with active treatment comparisons and mechanistic explanations.
BMC geriatrics
February 14, 2024
Samantha Galluzzi, Mariangela Lanfredi, Davide Vito Moretti et al.
12 citations
A web-based mindfulness intervention delivered via videoconference over eight weeks improved cognitive and psychological measures in healthy older adults. Verbal memory, attention, executive functions, interoceptive awareness, and rumination showed significant improvements that persisted at a six-month follow-up. Electroencephalography recordings revealed a decrease in alpha1 brain rhythms and an increase in alpha2 rhythms from before the intervention to the follow-up, and these brain changes correlated with cognitive and emotional improvements. The findings suggest that remotely delivered mindfulness training may benefit older adults' mental health, but controlled studies are needed to confirm the results.
Frontiers in psychology
January 1, 2025
Alberto Chiesa, Cristiano Crescentini, Fabio D'Antoni et al.
5 citations
A nine-month mindfulness teacher training program enhanced the ability to perceive and interpret bodily signals—known as interoceptive awareness—in 38 individuals training to become mindfulness-based intervention teachers, compared with 24 matched controls. The trained group showed significantly greater increases in awareness of mind-body integration. Although overall emotional distress did not differ between groups, increases in self-regulation scores within the training group were linked to decreases in depression and total emotional distress. The findings suggest that mindfulness training for future teachers further improves their capacity to attend to, regulate, and interpret bodily signals.
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
June 12, 2026
Thorsten Barnhofer, Maria Niemi, Johannes Michalak et al.
1 citation
For adults with difficult-to-treat depression—those who have not responded to prior treatments, have treatment-resistant depression, or have a chronic course—mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is likely superior to usual care, reducing depressive symptoms by a standardized mean difference of -0.40 at post-treatment and -0.41 at medium-term follow-up. There was a 92% and 85% probability, respectively, that these benefits exceeded a minimal important difference. However, MBCT did not show clear superiority over other active psychosocial interventions, and no robust moderators of outcome were identified across baseline severity, chronicity, or comorbidity.