Transcendental meditation is a “safe, scalable, and profoundly effective solution” for reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research has demonstrated.
Researchers have found that transcendental meditation reduced PTSD symptoms by 10 or more points on the standard PTSD checklist.
Throughout the trial, the team of researchers examined 15 studies with more than 1,200 participants, some of whom are from military backgrounds.
They discovered that transcendental meditation was beneficial for most people, regardless of their ethnicity.
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It was found to be particularly effective for war refugees, war veterans, healthcare workers during the COVID pandemic, earthquake-tsunami victims, female survivors of domestic violence, male and female prison inmates, nurses traumatised during the COVID-19 pandemic and college students living with racial violence.
The U.S.A. Veterans Administration use Health Education or Prolonged Exposure therapy as a first-line therapy for treating PTSD, but transcendental meditation is associated with quicker reductions in symptoms, the study has reported.
First author and former US Army Medical Corps officer, Dr Brian Rees said: “I’ve served in war zones and seen how PTSD ravages lives long after the battle ends.
“This research shows transcendental meditation offers a safe, scalable, and profoundly effective solution-often with results in just a few weeks.”
Joint author Dr Vernon Barnes said: “I have 13 years of experience teaching transcendental meditation in an army hospital to over 300 active-duty soldiers with PTSD and traumatic brain injury issues.
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“These soldiers have combat-related PTSD laid on top of years of pre-existing trauma starting in childhood.”
He added: “That is the reason their PTSD is so intense. That population needs evidence-based, behavioural-health therapy, and then transcendental meditation as an adjunctive therapy to promote healing and cement the gains.
“The experience of providers I have worked with is that patients who get transcendental meditation after therapy recover faster and more completely than those who do not.”
The researchers finalised: “We recommend that large-scale, phase III trials be conducted to further establish transcendental meditation’s role alongside or in place of existing treatments for PTSD.”
Read the full study in the journal Medicina.
