Meditation interventions affect people differently depending on their personal characteristics. Analyzing 51 studies with 7,782 participants, higher baseline levels of psychopathology or depression were associated with worsening mental health after meditation. In contrast, participants with stronger interpersonal skills, motivation, medical conditions, or mindfulness tended to experience greater benefits. Higher well-being and stress were linked to both increased positive and negative outcomes. Demographics, psychological traits, self-concept, and prior meditation practice length did not significantly influence results. These findings highlight individual factors that should be considered when using meditation interventions.
Meditation, while widely used for therapy and wellbeing, can also be associated with adverse events. This systematic review examined the major clinical categories and prevalence of meditation-related adverse events, finding that such events occur and can be categorized, though the text does not specify the exact categories or prevalence rates.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in healthy adults found that meditation interventions moderately increased prosociality overall, but the effect depended on the type of prosocial behavior and study quality. Meditation improved compassion and empathy, but did not affect aggression, connectedness, or prejudice. Compassion only increased when the meditation teacher was also a study co-author and when a passive waiting-list control group was used instead of an active control. The results challenge the common belief that meditation reliably boosts prosocial behavior.