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April 8, 2010 | Transcendental Meditation may help fight depression |
Washington: Transcendental Meditation, a stress-busting technique, may help reduce symptoms of depression, according to two new studies. The studies will be presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Society of Behavioral
Medicine in Seattle, Washington April 9th, 2010. The studies, conducted at Charles
Drew University in Los Angeles and University of Hawaii in Kohala included African
Americans and Native Hawaiians, 55 years and older, who were at risk for cardiovascular
disease. Participants were randomly allocated to the Transcendental Meditation
program or health education control group, and assessed with a standard test for
depression-the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) inventory
over 9-12 months. "Clinically meaningful reductions in depressive symptoms were
associated with practice of the Transcendental Meditation program," said Sanford
Nidich, EdD, lead author and senior researcher at the Institute for Natural Medicine
and Prevention at Maharishi University of Management. "The findings of these studies
have important implications for improving mental health and reducing the risk
of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality," said Dr. Nidich. Participants in both
studies who practiced the Transcendental Meditation program showed significant
reductions in depressive symptoms compared to health education controls. The largest
decreases were found in those participants who had indications of clinically significant
depression, with those practicing Transcendental Meditation showing an average
reduction in depressive symptoms of 48 percent. "These results are encouraging
and provide support for testing the efficacy of Transcendental Meditation as a
therapeutic adjunct in the treatment of clinical depression," said Hector Myers,
PhD, study co-author and professor and director of Clinical Training in the Department
of Psychology at U.C.L.A. |
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