Loving-Kindness Meditation vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Veterans
JAMA Network Open April 1, 2021 D. Kearney, C. Malte, Meghan Storms et al.
For veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), group loving-kindness meditation works about as well as group cognitive processing therapy. In a randomized clinical trial with 184 veterans, the reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms from the start of treatment to six months later were very similar for both groups, and the small differences fell within a range considered not meaningfully different. More veterans attended the loving-kindness meditation sessions than the cognitive processing therapy sessions. These results suggest that meditation-based interventions that do not specifically focus on trauma can produce outcomes comparable to trauma-focused therapies.