Psychosomatic Medicine
July 1, 2003
Richard J. Davidson, Jon Kabat‐zinn, Jessica R. Schumacher et al.
2,924 citations
An 8-week mindfulness meditation training program for healthy employees increased left-sided anterior brain activation, a pattern linked to positive emotion, and boosted antibody titers after an influenza vaccine compared with a wait-list control group. The magnitude of the brain activation increase predicted the size of the antibody response. These results indicate that a brief meditation intervention can measurably alter brain and immune function.
Psychosomatic Medicine
January 1, 2002
Scott R. Bishop
759 citations
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a clinical program that trains people in mindfulness meditation to help them adapt to medical illness and manage stress and emotions. Despite widespread use in medical settings over the past 20 years, a critical review of the medical and social science literature finds that research on MBSR has been scarce and often methodologically flawed. Consequently, very little is known about its effectiveness. Some evidence suggests it may hold promise, but the available evidence does not support a strong endorsement of the approach at present. Serious investigation is strongly recommended.
Psychosomatic Medicine
March 22, 2017
Adrienne A. Taren, Peter J. Gianaros, Carol M. Greco et al.
212 citations
Three days of intensive mindfulness meditation training, compared with relaxation training, strengthened functional connections between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and brain regions involved in executive control. In adults with high psychological distress, resting-state functional connectivity increased between left dlPFC and the right inferior frontal gyrus, right middle frontal gyrus, right supplementary eye field, right parietal cortex, and left middle temporal gyrus, and between right dlPFC and right middle frontal gyrus. These results suggest that even brief mindfulness training can enhance neural circuit connectivity underlying executive function, extending prior work on active meditation by identifying specific resting-state networks affected in distressed individuals.
Psychosomatic Medicine
November 1, 2011
R. Gina Silverstein, Anne-Catharine H. Brown, Harold D. Roth et al.
165 citations
Mindfulness meditation training improved women's ability to quickly register their own physiological responses to sexual stimuli, a skill known as interoceptive awareness. Women who completed a 12-week meditation course also showed better attention, less self-judgment, and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to an active control group. These improvements in interoceptive awareness were linked to reductions in psychological barriers that can interfere with healthy sexual functioning, suggesting mindfulness training may be a promising approach for treating female sexual dysfunction.
Psychosomatic Medicine
January 1, 1998
Robert H. Schneider, Sanford Nidich, John W. Salerno et al.
95 citations
Oxidative stress, which may contribute to aging and chronic diseases like atherosclerosis, was lower in older adults who practiced the Transcendental Meditation technique compared to those who did not. Long-term practitioners (average 16.5 years) had serum lipid peroxide levels 15% lower than controls, as measured by the TBARS assay. The two groups did not differ in smoking, fat intake, or vitamin supplementation, and the lower red meat consumption among meditators did not account for the difference. These preliminary results suggest that stress reduction through Transcendental Meditation may be associated with reduced oxidative stress, though prospective trials are needed to confirm a causal effect.
Psychosomatic Medicine
May 1, 1982
John T. Farrow, Russell Hebert
95 citations
In four experiments, people practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique showed frequent and long breath suspension episodes, while control subjects relaxing with eyes closed did not. The design ruled out voluntary breath control. Many meditators reported a quiescent mental state with awareness but no thought; button presses marking this experience correlated strongly with breath suspension episodes, indicating a physiological link. In one advanced meditator, these experiences also involved reduced heart rate, high and stable skin resistance, lower respiration and metabolic rates, and consistent changes in EEG power and coherence, suggesting long-range neural order.
Psychosomatic Medicine
May 1, 1984
Kheireddine Badawi, Robert K. Wallace, David W. Orme‐johnson et al.
91 citations
During the Transcendental Meditation program, 18 practitioners showed 52 periods of spontaneous respiratory suspension (RS) that sometimes corresponded to experiences of pure consciousness. In 19 artifact-free RS periods from 11 subjects, mean total EEG coherence across all frequencies and nine electrode derivations increased significantly compared to before and after the RS periods. A control group of 30 subjects voluntarily holding their breath showed no significant change in EEG coherence. Heart rate decreased significantly during RS in both groups, while EEG alpha power did not change significantly in either group. These results help characterize the physiological correlates of pure consciousness during the Transcendental Meditation program.
Psychosomatic Medicine
February 1, 1979
Ruth R. Michaels, Juan Parra, Daisy S. McCann et al.
54 citations
Transcendental meditation (TM) did not produce a unique physiological state of reduced stress or sympathetic activity. During TM, plasma renin activity increased slightly (14%), while cortisol decreased progressively in both meditators and controls. Aldosterone and lactate did not change. Meditators showed no increase in cortisol between initial samples, unlike controls, suggesting they may be less responsive to acute stress. The findings do not support the idea that TM induces a special relaxation state.
Psychosomatic Medicine
March 31, 2021
Jelle Zorn, Oussama Abdoun, Sandrine Sonié et al.
32 citations
Cognitive defusion—a form of psychological distancing from internal experiences—plays a central role in how mindfulness meditation regulates pain, especially the unpleasantness aspect. Expert meditators with over 10,000 hours of practice reported much lower pain catastrophizing (6.9 vs. 17.2) and higher cognitive defusion (39.4 vs. 28.9) than novices after two days of training. Across all participants, pain catastrophizing and cognitive defusion were strongly and specifically linked, and only cognitive defusion uniquely predicted pain unpleasantness after accounting for other factors. This suggests that cultivating cognitive defusion, rather than other mindfulness-related processes, may be key to reducing the distressing experience of pain.
Psychosomatic Medicine
October 1, 1942
Morton A. Rubin, William Malamud, Justin M. Hope
24 citations
In 14 schizophrenic patients, mescaline, cocaine, sodium amytal, and benzedrine produced changes in personality and brain waves only when psychological changes occurred. Drug effects fell into two categories: those specific to each drug, such as mescaline causing extreme anxiety and a 25 to 30 percent increase in alpha rhythm frequency, and sodium amytal reducing tension while introducing a 15 to 20 per second beta rhythm; and those characteristic of each patient, where psychotic content and reactions to the setting, along with consistent increases or decreases in alpha rhythm percentage, appeared regardless of the drug given.
Psychosomatic Medicine
July 1, 1973
David W. Orme-Johnson
20 citations
People who regularly practiced Transcendental Meditation showed lower physiological stress responses than nonmeditators. In a test with 14 meditators and 16 controls, a loud tone (100 dB) was played at irregular intervals. Meditators habituated faster—their galvanic skin response (GSR) to the tone diminished more quickly—and they made fewer multiple responses, indicating greater autonomic stability. In two additional experiments, meditators also produced fewer spontaneous GSRs both during meditation (compared with rest) and while out of meditation with eyes open. The findings suggest that regular meditation practice is associated with more stable autonomic nervous system functioning under stress.