A six-week focused meditation training reduced depression and anxiety symptoms among university students compared to a waiting list control group. Those who continued meditating showed lower depression scores at 6 months and lower anxiety scores at both 6 and 12 months follow-up. The maintenance of symptom reductions depended on continued practice, suggesting permanent meditation programs could support mental health in this population.
Meditation practice appears to engage cognitive and attentional control resources in the brain when people face negative emotional stimuli, even without being asked to regulate their emotions. A systematic review of 11 eligible studies found that both novice and long-term meditators showed greater prefrontal and frontal brain activity during exposure to negative stimuli, suggesting increased recruitment of control mechanisms. Findings from emotion-related brain areas were limited, but some studies indicated greater insular activity in meditators, potentially reflecting heightened bodily awareness. These results support the idea that meditation fosters interoceptive awareness of bodily and emotional states.